 |
Kathmandu Tuesday March 27, 2001 Chaitra 14, 2057.
|
UNEP to monitor Valley pollution
Post Report
KATHMANDU, March 26 – United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) is all set to open its new regional office specializing in the field of air
pollution and haze in Kathmandu before 2002, UNEP’s Executive Director Dr Klaus
Topfer announced here today.
"We will open the office by the second half of this
year (2001), hopefully," Topfer told reporters here today. "The technical office
– which among other things will also have a meteorological station - will specialize
in air pollution, and issues related to that."
The office will specifically carry out researches and
studies on the brown haze that affects Kathmandu Valley and much of the Asia region
particularly during the monsoon dry season from January to April, and will be managed by
the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) office.
Topfer made the announcement after the formal launching of
the report – State of Environment Nepal 2001 – jointly prepared by the Ministry
of Population and Environment (MOPE), International Center for Integrated Mountain
Development (ICIMOD), Norwegian Development Agency (NORAD) and a number of other
organizations.
The 235-page report details the current state of
Nepal’s environment vis-a-vis forest depletion, solid waste management, soil
degradation and air pollution, and recommends measures to curb them.
Dr Topfer also pointed out that ‘proverty is the most
toxic element’ in environment, and added that UNEP was not only concerned with
protecting the environment, but also with the process of sustainable development and
creating the condition of harmony between people and nature.
He also spoke of the environmental dangers from
western-style consumerism and globalization such as dangers to the world’s ethnic
languages.
"There are between 5,000 to 7,000 spoken languages in
the world – a third of them in Asia – but more than 2,500 are in danger of
immediate extinction," he said. "Losing a language and its cultural context is
like burning a unique reference book of the natural world. Maintaining biological
diversity is strongly linked with preservation of indigenous knowledge and language."
Dr Topfer also said that it was vitally important that
environmental considerations were incorporated into the macroeconomic policies of global
financial institutions and mainstream government and private sector decision making.
Talking with The Kathmandu Post, Dr Topfer said that
Nepal’s success in community forestry is indeed laudable and replicable.
"Nepal’s community forestry programs are famous all over the world. We are even
thinking of developing such programs as a pilot project in other countries," he said.
During his four-day visit, Dr Topfer met representatives
from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) – Nepal, the World Conservation Union
(IUCN), the King Mahendra Trust for Nature Conservation (KMTNC), the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the UNDP. He also called on PM Girija
Prasad Koirala and other ministers on Monday,.
Other Stories
|
