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| Kathmandu, Thursday March 13, 2003 Falgun 29, 2059. |
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Off the road
The order by a bench of the country’s apex
court the other day to take all vehicles older than 20 years and those that do not meet
the minimum emission standards off the road in the Kathmandu Valley needs to be welcomed.
The decision is not only in keeping with the time but also essential considering how
crowded, unplanned and haphazard dwellings have spurted in the Valley in recent years.
There is little debate that the Valley, where most business and political activities are
centred, has drawn people from all over the country and beyond. As a result, the Valley
has been crowded and is susceptible to health hazards in many forms, including pollution
generated by vehicles. The streets in most parts of the Valley were never planned to
accommodate the vast number of people and vehicles they now have to carry. On top of the
other factors, the local and central governments appear to turn a blind eye to the
problems faced by the inhabitants of the Valley’s three cities. Responsible
authorities never brought out workable blueprints where residential buildings are to be
located, and where office and shopping complexes are to be built. The roads remained as
they were when first constructed decades ago. In short, even the physical infrastructures
in the country are hardly able to sustain the kind of onslaught that the Valley is facing
from different areas.
The polluting emission from old vehicles is just
one of the problems being faced by the city. The narrow streets overcrowded with
pedestrians and the two-and-four-wheel vehicles are particularly prone to high doses of
air pollution. It is not for nothing that Kathmandu is known as one of the most polluted
cities in the world. The government trying to please those it thinks are its voters
or political workers has not really implemented the needed action to lessen the pollution.
The government has not even been able to fully implement its own emission standards. There
are different mechanisms to check drivers but even those with most polluting emissions are
known to have received ‘green stickers’. The government must ensure that its
officials whether the police or regular bureaucrats implement laws, rules and regulations
in the spirit they were framed. And any form of corruption in this sector is playing havoc
with the life of the citizens and this cannot be tolerated. The Supreme Court, therefore,
has done well to instruct the government to ban all vehicles older than 20 years from
plying the streets. The government must also mull over whether it should now ban vehicles
from selected crowded areas in the three cities of the valley. The government has already
allowed the import of less polluting vehicles to replace the polluting old buses and
mini-buses. Yet even today such buses and mini-buses are plying. Such attitude from the
part of the government cannot be accepted. The government and all citizens must remain
alert on the long-term impact of impure air on the Valley and its people. |
