After a month long of stay in Kathmandu, this morning I found a new breeze of energy to wake up and document the problem that is well evident in the environment. Every living individual in Kathmandu is aware of the hazardous air quality in the valley. As of yet, I am unsure of whether it is the air pollution or apathy towards it that adds an extra layer of difficulty living in the valley. Here, I would like to document the severity of the situation and clarify the problem.

\label{fig:aqi2020} Figure 1. Air Quality Index, data from AirNow

Figure 1. Air Quality Index, data from AirNow

Figure 1 plots the air quality index (AQI) for the year 2020. The vertical red line pertains to March 24, 2020, when countrywide lockdown was initiated in Nepal. There seems to be a discontinuous drop in AQI in April, which might have been due to the lockdown itself. Between the month of June to October, AQI fell below 100, marked by the green horizontal line (note that AQI above 100 pertains to unhealthy air standard for sensitive groups). Gradual uplifting of lockdown policies in months of July and August marks an increasing trend in AQI. Futhermore, the end of odd-even vehicle policy on 18th of December (marked by the red dotted line) created a discontinuous jump in AQI in the following days. A cluster of points hovers above the AQI index of 200 and some above 400. Given that even in the year plagued by COVID19, seven out twelve months witnessed AQI above 100 is very alarming and it begs a question of whether civilization in the valley is sustainable simply from an ecological standpoint (if nothing changes).

The severity of environmental problems occurring in Kathmandu is obviously tied to some deeper problems such as institutional mishaps and political instability. The air that we breath and a significant portion of physical space that allows daily mobility are public goods. Due to lack of private ownership, from a behavioral perspective, an average individual will have no incentive to care about the air that is public to everyone or a river that cuts through the valley. Normally, the social planner (almost always the government) jumps in to clean up the mess; and rightly so, as it is the responsibility of the government to ensure functionality of public goods. However, both institutional bodies and government entities are present merely as figureheads – ease of corruption and fake democracy (where people are bought in for votes) completely dismantles the possibility of aforementioned textbook solution to the problem. Hence, it requires reformatting of the problem completely, as waiting for an appropriate level of political stability might just be too late.

The narrow version of the problem can be documented as:

Given a land with population that has surpassed her holding capacity and with no support from institutional or political bodies, how can air quality be improved in Kathmandu such that it is sustainable and provides somewhat healthy living opportunity?

The nature of the problem is unique enough to get ditch the mainstream textbook knowledge in search of a novel solution. Regardless, the approach should be multidisciplinary and strictly non-academic.