In the last week of March 2021 - when wildfires raged across Nepal - the country was shrouded in haze and harmful smoke. (Kathmandu Post)
Nationwide forest fires had taken the air quality to hazardous levels leaving the general public gasping for clean air.
The situation called for a public health emergency.
However, the adverse impact of air pollution and deteriorated air quality is not limited to human health.
The effects of air pollution transcend public health and can lead to massive loss of lives and property by unleashing catastrophic events like floods and landslides, according to the findings of a recent study published in Climate Dynamics, a scientific journal.
Researchers had studied the climatic impact of aerosols—a collection of solid particles or liquid droplets dispersed in the air—on clouds, precipitation, and the freezing temperatures over Himalayan foothills and the mountainous region of Nepal.
“Our findings suggest that atmospheric pollution affects the clouds, rainfall, and the free air freezing temperature,” Pramod Adhikari, co-author of the study, told the Kathmandu Post from the University of Nevada in Reno, United States.
“Aerosols, the tiny particles suspended in the atmosphere, modulate cloud properties and hence the intensity and amount of the rainfall. Such a phenomenon can result in excessive rainfall and can cause natural disasters.”
