Preparing for Kathmandu’s heat waves

The day my father brought home a shiny new motorcycle for the first time in Kathmandu, we were thrilled.

After smashing a coconut and garlanding the bike, the blue Honda was our key to the city. I was taken on it to school, to relatives, and to hospitals. It was more than just a motorcycle — it was freedom on two wheels. It liberated my family from crowded and unreliable buses, and gave us control over our own lives.

In the last 20 years, 22% of the Nepalis have graduated to middle-class status. There are now more Nepalis with disposable income than any time before. There are also new aspirations of comfort and levels of consumption. Cars, motorcycles, air conditioners, and even bungalows that were previously viewed as luxuries have now become accessible to a sizable proportion of people.

But this has also increased the per capita carbon footprint of Nepalis. And worsening air pollution is already reducing average life spans by four years.

The growing appetite of our newly minted middle-class has become a cause for concern, not a feel-good story of economic growth. Haphazard urban growth is already causing  massive changes to the environment, adding more carbon-emitters will only make it worse.

Nepal may contribute only 0.5% of the total global greenhouse gas emissions, but it needs to urgently address intensifying urban heat island effect – this is the tendency of built up areas to warm more than their surroundings. Cities absorb and re-emit heat from the sun, and also from industries, vehicles and household air conditioning. As cities expand and  green spaces shrink, cities get hotter.

New Delhi is a prime example: residents have been experiencing extreme heat wave conditions with increase of surface and canopy layer heat by 4-6°C during the day, and 2-4° at night. Kathmandu could soon follow, given the rise in vehicle numbers and concretisation.

Urban heat islands (or ‘bubbles’) contribute to global warming, and if left unchecked, people can unwittingly become a part of the vicious cycle. When cities become hotter, people invest in air conditioners, which in turn further increase heat and carbon emissions.

‘Urban land expansion will result in average summer daytime and night-time warming in air temperature of 0.5°C–0.7°C, up to ~3°C in some locations,’ states a study published in 2019 in Environmental Research Letters. ‘This warming is on average about half, and sometimes up to two times, as strong as that caused by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.’

Aside from the Tarai, a large part of Nepal has a temperate climate. Just a generation ago, installing air conditioners in Kathmandu would have been unheard of. Yet, studies have shown that just between 2000-2018, the average temperature in the Valley increased by 2.1°C. The Valley’s heat bubble has further increased the demand for cooling solutions.

Though research in urban island effects of other cities are lacking, anecdotal evidence point to a similar conclusion for Biratnagar, Birgunj and Butwal in the last 20 years.

Policymakers have a simple solution for this: hike taxes on vehicles and other big carbon-emitters. But this is short-sighted, part of the solution lies in the electrification of the transport. As it is, fossil cars are taxed at 260% in Nepal, further levy can restrict people’s freedom of choice.

Motorcycles have become near indispensible for many Nepalis, especially in the cities. The public transit system is mismanaged and unsafe, which means two-wheelers have become the vehicle of choice.

Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis belonging to the burgeoning middle-class have worked hard to earn enough to afford these luxuries, it is not right to restrict that either.

Rising urban heat is a systemic issue. These are localised effects caused by local conditions, but need state-level action for mitigation – multidisciplinary and innovative urban planning solutions that not only control but also reduce urban heat, while reducing Nepal’s petroleum import bill, and cutting air pollution.

First and foremost, we need to reinvent public transport, which is under the chokehold of private cartels. Its unreliability is a primary reason why so many people gravitate towards private vehicles.

Evidence from European cities has shown that increasing access to public transport systems, bicycle lanes and ride-sharing technology (think Tootle and Pathao) has reduced car ownership rates. When there is a viable alternative to private vehicle ownership, residents are more than willing to make the switch.

For instance, a study done in Copenhagen found that extending the metro line to its suburban regions decreased car ownership by 2-3% in the city. Nepal can similarly develop commuter bus routes as an alternative for private vehicles and create the same effect.

Public transport also reduces waste heat because of fewer vehicles on the roads. Nationalising and regulating public transport system, and creating new and reliable inter-city routes make urban areas more liveable as well as decrease carbon burden of vehicle ownership.

Cities can also be restructured so that most people are a walk away from hospitals, drinking water supply and vegetable markets. In times of emergency, many people in Nepal need to travel an incredible distance just to get proper medical attention, even in urban areas.

In absence of zoning laws which segregates parts of the city into residential, industrial, business, more and more peri-urban regions in the outskirts of Kathmandu have been converted into housing plots, further decimating green spaces.

These laws not only help control the sprawl of the city by preventing unplanned development, but also ensure residents are close to essential services and public transport networks.

Nothing reduces urban heat more than trees, parks and water bodies. Plants, vegetation, and rooftop gardens sequester carbon released from vehicles in the ground as well as provide shades. Lakes and rivers form their own micro-climates in the surrounding region, creating cooling breezes.

Even aside from their aesthetic significance and cooling effect, green and blue spaces act as a valuable centre for communities to come together. They provide spaces for children to play, for the elderly to exercise. Studies have shown that taking a walk in parks and surrounding oneself with plants and fresh air reduce stress and improve one's state of mind, thereby improving the city's quality of life as well.

These solutions require political will and investment. Furthermore, implementing these solutions in cities that have already been built or are in the process of expansion is going to be difficult and inconvenient for many.

Nepalis deserve better cities and living conditions. Rather than a top-to-down approach where a central board decides all the policies, there is a need for participatory planning approach, where all the stakeholders have the space to not only discuss problems, but also decide how these issues should be solved.

Nepal got a late start in development but the emerging challenges of the environment and climate give us an opportunity to learn from and improve upon the mistakes of developed countries.

Increasing disposable income brings with it political power as well, and the people of Nepal are in a unique position to not only better urban life for their individual selves, but also for millions of other Nepalis.

Avani Adhikari is a student of Economics and Urban planning in Singapore.