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Urban Growth and Environment and Health Hazards in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal

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Urban Health Risk and Resilience in Asian Cities

Part of the book series: Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences ((AGES))

Abstract

This paper deals with the environment and health hazards with respect to urban growth in the Kathmandu valley cities of Nepal. Air and water pollutions and poor sanitation are the most serious public health issues in the cities of Kathmandu valley. The urban growth in the valley is very rapid and urban expansion has taken place haphazardly encroaching upon prime agricultural land, public land, open spaces, riverbanks, and forestland. The urban environment continues to deteriorate and provision of urban utility services is quite inadequate as to the need of alarmingly rising urban population in the valley cities. The health of the people living in the valley’s urban areas is affected by the pollution of air, water, and sanitation, as well as by a huge loss of greenery and watershed coverage. However, urbanization is essential for social and economic development in Nepal and so, well-being of the people, if it is well planned and the existing urban policies and acts implemented sincerely and dedicatedly.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    There were 58 urban areas (municipalities) in 2011. After this, 235 new municipalities have been added five times as the government changed, thus making it up to a total of 293 by 2016. However, no data are available on population and other urban features of those newly inducted municipalities. Further, municipalities are designated mainly by the political decision and so it often ignores functional criteria and therefore comparisons can be misleading. Municipalities are the lowest level of administrative and political entity and there are three levels of municipalities such as municipality, sub-metropolis, and metropolis and their numbers now, respectively, are 276, 11, and 6.

  2. 2.

    This includes existing five large municipalities, viz., Bhaktapur, Kathmandu, Kirtipur, Lalitpur, and Madhyapurthimi and other 15 municipalities, which were newly inducted after 2011 population census.

  3. 3.

    In Nepal, the definition of urban areas or incorporated municipalities based mainly on population size differed largely among the population censuses. In census of 1952/1954, the urban area was defined with a population of over 5,000. In 1971 census, the population size criteria for designating urban area increased to 10,000 and over, but by 1976 it was reduced to 9,000. Again in 1994, the minimum population size for the municipality remained to be 10,000. Based on this threshold population size, the number of designated urban areas reached 58 in 1996 and the number continued to remain the same until 2011 census. The “Local Self-Governance Act 1999” redefined the municipalities with a minimum population size of 10,000 for the Mountain and Hill regions and 20,000 for the Tarai region (HMG 1999).

  4. 4.

    They include Pokhara (Western Hill), Hetauda (Central Hill) and Dharan, Itahari, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Kalaiya, Birganj, Bharatpur, Butwal, Nepalganj, Dhangadhi, and Mahendranagar (across Tarai region).

  5. 5.

    According to the population census of Nepal (CBS 2003), a person of a particular place (district, municipality or village) borne elsewhere in other districts within the country and foreign places is said to be “migrant”.

  6. 6.

    They included locality sites such as Thamel (696 µg/m3), Chabahil (2928 µg/m3), Kalanki (620 µg/m3), Minbhawan (315 µg/m3), Lagankhel (362 µg/m3), Sanepa (545 µg/m3), Bhaktapur (178 µg/m3), Budhanilkantha (336 µg/m3), and Godavari (72 µg/m3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Bandana Pradhan, Puspa Sharma & Pushkar K. Pradhan

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  1. Bandana Pradhan
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  2. Puspa Sharma
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  3. Pushkar K. Pradhan
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Correspondence to Pushkar K. Pradhan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    R.B. Singh

  2. Department of Geography, Osmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana, India

    Bathula Srinagesh

  3. Department of Geography, Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Subhash Anand

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Pradhan, B., Sharma, P., Pradhan, P.K. (2020). Urban Growth and Environment and Health Hazards in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. In: Singh, R., Srinagesh, B., Anand, S. (eds) Urban Health Risk and Resilience in Asian Cities. Advances in Geographical and Environmental Sciences. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1205-6_17

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