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Is the urban development of NEpal environmentally sustainable? (Part II) |
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From the figure (attached with the report) it is evident that agricultural land, forest areas, open areas and water bodies have been compromised and used up in quest of developing residential area and other infrastructure. Rivers and water bodies have significantly been used up, most of them at present resemble open sewer however many have been enchroached to raise shelter for growing urban population. Rivers area has squeezed from 7% to 1%, however remaining 1% of those rivers are more like open sewer rather than river itself. According to ADB (2006) rivers have become major placesn for disposal of industrial efflents, as well as urban solid waste disposal. This is the principle cause of surface water pollution. (p.111)
It is also observed that population in this 80 years increased by almost 7 folds however road construction has only increased by 4%. Kathmandu valley which supports almost 2.5 million inhabitants has population growth rate of 6% as compared to 2001. However infrastructure are not being able to bear the pressure of such growing population. According to a report the road density in different municipalities show that road congestion is high in case of Lalitpur and Kathmandu (Sharma, 2012). This means extension of road network is inadequate as compared to growing number of vehicles. Because of the same traffic jams are increasing in the roads along emission of GHG and other gases deteriorating air quality of the valley. ADB in 2006 quoted that The deterioration in urban ambient air quality results fro vehicular emissions, industrial emissions, burning solid waste including plastics, construction work, poor maintenance ad narrow roads and adulteration of fuel. (p.112)
Fig: Road densities in different municipalities (Source: Sharma, 2012)
Agricultural land and land use: Similarly, Kathmandu valley which is supposed to be one of the most fertile land in the country has lost its agricultural land in course of urban development. According to Karki (1998), between 1984 and 1994 the urban area in the valley increased from 3096 Hectare (ha) to 8378 ha and 5282 ha of fertile agricultural land was lost in the process of unmanaged urbanization (ADB, 2006). From the figure it is observed that proportion of agricultural land has decreased from 52% in 1920 to 18% in 2003. It is predicted that by 2020 urban growth rate could take over all good arable land and cover 60% of the valley area (HMG/USAID, 1990 as cited in ADB, 2006). |
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21 Comments
Thank you for sharing
Posted 23-08-2013 10:46
thanks for sharing
Posted 20-08-2013 10:03
thanks for the information.
Posted 30-07-2013 16:13
true .................
Posted 29-07-2013 02:47
Thanks for your informative report. Yes,the land use pattern of the kathmandu valley is changing. Proper land use management system is still lacking. Government should focus on the proper land use management system and its implementation and this system should address socio-economic and environmental issues of growing population in sustainable manner.
Posted 21-07-2013 22:33
Development, urbanization...and sustaining nature..always wonder there would be a better way to co-op...thanks for the report!
Posted 21-07-2013 13:13
Sad state of affairs in Kathmandu. Govt should interfere and put the Sustainability words into practice
Posted 20-07-2013 19:18
Thank you for the report Pratap.
Urbanization is really a problem of Nepal. we hear that people used to take Bath in the holy rivers Bagmati which look like sewage to us now, plus while we see the valley from surrounding hills we hardly see any big open spaces its really frustrating to see the changed face of Kathmandu due to unmanaged urbanization
Posted 19-07-2013 20:57
Thanks for the information!
Posted 19-07-2013 15:05
Kathmandu is suffering from unmanaged urbanization.
Posted 19-07-2013 12:45
sustainability is in theory only.
Posted 19-07-2013 02:32
It's informative.
Posted 19-07-2013 02:23
This seems to be a very serious problem , not only just for kathmanduites but for neighboring regions as well . I wish I knew what we could do about it though . And thanks for keeping up in the light !!
Posted 18-07-2013 23:50
It's useful
Posted 18-07-2013 04:09
Thank you for the report!
Posted 18-07-2013 01:17
Thank you for your report. The graphics and images make it so easy to see that the development has not been very well planned and due to that urbanisation is swallowing up the agricultural land.
Posted 17-07-2013 19:40
thank you for a detailed information!
Posted 17-07-2013 15:42
It's our luck to read profound insight about Nepal's urban.
Thank you so much, Pratap :-)
Posted 17-07-2013 15:40
not sustainable yet but should be
Posted 17-07-2013 15:34
proper landuse policy should be made in Nepal!
Posted 17-07-2013 12:47
this is the continuity of the first part of my article on same topic..hope you all will find this one interesting and gain some new insights..
Posted 17-07-2013 10:20