KATHMANDU: The air pollution afflicting the country, including the federal capital, Kathmandu, for quite a while has declined remarkably after the rainfall last Friday.
The Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 178, making Kathmandu City as the second most polluted city in the world a week back. The AQI is now declined sharply placing the Kathmandu City at AQI 60. It means Kathmandu is the 67th polluted place in the world now.
The AQI measurement from 0 to 50 is considered ‘good’ while 51 to 100 ‘requires alertness’, 100 to 150 is ‘unhealthy’, impacting badly the people with respiratory and heart diseases. It is ‘unhealthy for all’ if the AQI ranges from 151 to 200, while the ‘very unhealthy’ stage is 201 to 300 and ‘very dangerous’ in case of the AQI above 300.
Director General at the Department of Environment, Gyanraj Subedi, informed that the rainfall coupled with storm swept away the dust and polluted particles. It resulted into clean air.
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