The need for collective efforts has been stressed to minimize the regional problem of growing air pollution in the Southern Asia and the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) nations.
At a workshop and science policy-dialogue on "Air pollution, climate and health in Southern Asia and the HKH", underway in Lalitpur since November 27, concerns were expressed over a widespread and growing air pollution that extends beyond cities, across vast rural areas, across international boundaries and even across the mountain ranges, and its impacts on the region's climate, on the health of hundreds of millions of people, as well as on agriculture, water resources and income generation of the people.
The four-day workshop is co-hosted by the Ministry of Population and Environment and the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).
The participants of the program are of the view that effective implementation of the Male Declaration on the Control and Prevention of Air Pollution and its Trans-boundary Effects in South Asia-1998 could be the best means to minimise the impact of air pollution.
Ministry Secretary Paraksh Mathema and ICIMOD director general David James Molden said air pollution was not the problem of any particular country, instead, it had emerged as the regional problem and timely combined efforts were essential to control and minimise this.
Around 100 scientists and policymakers from the South Asia and HKH nations are taking part in the workshop.
