Tag: Air pollution

As urbanisation accelerates across the Hindu Kush Himalaya, the brick industry - vital yet highly polluting - faces urgent calls for reform. ICIMOD, with partners, is leading efforts to promote cleaner, more efficient technologies like zigzag kilns, while addressing social challenges in the sector. With over 11,000 kilns converted in Punjab, Pakistan, and cross-provincial learning underway in Sindh, this transformation offers a scalable model for climate action, healthier communities, and safer livelihoods across South Asia.

Every year, in the pre-monsoon season (March - May), the Kathmandu valley experiences a double burden of exposure to high levels of forest fire (smoke) and air pollution. This year, too, was no different with the situation escalating toward its worst during the last week of March and the beginning of April.

With the incineration of agricultural residues long recognised as a key cause of South Asia’s air pollution crisis, it is time to embrace no-burn alternatives.

Hundreds of millions of people across the Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP) and Himalayan Foothills (HFH) are still breathing hazardous air ....