Region to worry

The growing problem of air pollution calls for close cooperation between actors at home and near abroad.

A drop in temperature has brought with it a sharp decline in air quality. Smog shrouds the skies, obscuring the hills and mountains surrounding Kathmandu Valley. While this is concerning, visuals of air pollution in the neighbouring countries have alarmed the world. Last week, images of the nearly invisible Taj Mahal and India Gate went viral. Further, the smog in parts of Pakistan and northern India was so dense that it was visible from space . According to the WHO, air with AQI values above 300 is labelled hazardous. It is only a matter of time before Kathmandu Valley and other parts of Nepal face a fate similar to India’s New Delhi and Pakistan’s Lahore, where AQI values have surpassed 1,000.