Kathmandu, the Capital and the largest city of Nepal is one of the fastest developing cities in the world with 200% growth in 23 years. Just half a century ago, it was a town with few hundred thousand people but today it’s a metropolis of 3 million without proper planning and management. The number of vehicles in Kathmandu is rising by 14% each year which is 3 times faster than the population. As the city is set in a valley, air pollution gets trapped between the mountains. Likewise, pollution from agricultural residue burning, which has picked up in Terai, also travels to Kathmandu with the wind.

AQI reading of Kathmandu Valley exceeded 600 means that the air quality was more than ten times worse than United States standard. Likewise with an overall concentration of 667 of PM 2.5 was observed on January 12, the number exceeded US guidelines by 66 times. The air quality detoriation in Kathmandu Valley is one of the worst till date. Specially, the air quality degrades significantly during Winter. Later on with the onset of spring, the air quality improves. But even during Summer season, the air pollution is 5 times higher than national threshold.

Emissions from factories, brick klins, waste burning, road improvement, and construction sectors are the major sources of air pollution in the valley. Nepal's top frequent ranking in terms of poor quality of air signifies that we have not not taken significant actions for tackling the problem. Along with the whole world, Nepal also faced public health crisis during COVID-19 pandemic. Air pollution was one of the major killer of lives before pandemic and is still one of the major cause of high deaths in Kathmandu Valley. As our health system was already fragile, COVID-19 further worsened it to worst form.

It is high time we learn from our mistakes and take responsible action. Public Awareness, Several campaigns, changing national and internationa policies in line with WHO health guidelines must be done as soon as possible. Then only, we can ensure that our future generation might get fresh air to breathe.