Answer:
Air pollution poses a significant challenge to inclusive and sustainable development in Nepal despite substantial growth in the past decade. Years of unabated population growth, an increase in air pollution sources and a lack of stringent environmental regulations and implementation have left a lasting imprint on the country’s environment.
Nepal was placed second in a list of top 10 countries with the highest population-weighted fine particulate matter (PM) 2.5 annual average levels by a State of Global Air (SoGA) report in 2020. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese citizens are at risk of several health problems due to air pollution.
SoGA is a collaboration between Health Effects Institute in the United States and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington. Population-weighted exposure level estimation is a method that provides a more refined exposure assessment as it includes population distribution.