Kathmandu Valley

Air borne particulate matter (PM) depending on size, shape, concentration, and chemical composition can cause multitude of health issues. In this study, we report the morphological study of dust samples obtained from twenty different locations of Kathmandu valley by imaging the sample directly by a bright field optical microscope. We find that the average size of particles in all the samples examined below 10 micrometer. Individual examination of particles revealed that significant number of particles asymmetric. The observation of asymmetric particles having aspect ratio as high as 20 may suggest that asbestiform particles exist in all the dust samples examined.

Hazard, in general can be defined as a phenomenon that has the potential to disrupt and damage people, property and their immediate environment. The hazard of land subsidence refers to the intensity and the probability that land subsidence will occur in a certain area in a certain period. As defined by the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Land subsidence hazard evaluation simply is the process of determining the degree of severity and the extent of the impact area. In this research, accumulative subsidence volume, land subsidence velocity and groundwater exploitation intensity was used as the indicators to evaluate hazard in the study area [14]. The former two indicators were obtained from the DInSAR processing results and the groundwater exploitation intensity data was obtained from the Kathmandu Valley Water Supply Management Board (KVWSMB), Ministry of Water Supply and Sanitation, Government of Nepal.

This study reveals that more than half of adolescent girls of selected slums in Kathmandu valley had inadequate knowledge regarding menstruation. Menstrual hygiene practice was good among a large proportion of the adolescent girls of slum areas. There was significant association between knowledge with age and education level of participants and family income. The knowledge and practice of menstrual hygiene had no significant association.

The finding of this study showed that the core setting of Kathmandu Valley is becoming vulnerable from the earthquake threat is due to low level of Knowledge and technical capabilities in the community for earthquake mitigation. This brings not only the negative ends of the scale (vulnerabilities), but also how they can constitute the positive capabilities of an individual or group to survive and recover from a given hazard impact of a given severity. In my study area, the earthquake riskes can be minimized by organizing the community level committee among people with most vulnerable groups which changes in their own attitudes toward and understanding of their position in society. These changes have to do with an increased awareness of their rights. The implications of this approach may produce innovative policy approaches.

gendered power relations influence knowledge of SRH and access to, and utilisation of, SRH services among youth in the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. In this paper we present the cross-sectional household survey information. The data were collected using two-stage cluster sampling from the study area. In the first stage of sample selection, primary sampling units (clusters i.e. wards) were selected using a probability proportional-to-size from each study area. We randomly selected a total of 40 clusters from three district urban areas using household and population information from the 2011 Population Census developed by the Central Bureau of Statistics. In the second stage, 35 households in each cluster were selected using a system- atic sampling technique. Thus, we needed to visit a total of 1400 households in order to interview the required number of youths.

This study was undertaken in fi ve out of nine health science campuses in the Kathmandu valley from mid-June to the end of August, 2018. The study focuses only on the female (both married and unmarried) students from Public health and Nursing students. The unit of analysis is female health science students. Students were asked to volunteer for a survey, and before they were recruited, written informed consent was obtained with explaining the goals and potential issues of their participation in this type of assessment. However, in this study, there were some participants at the age of 17 years. According to the law of Nepal, a citizen who has completed the age of 16 years can obtain the certi fi cate of citizenship. Afterward, they are eligible for giving the consent and other sort of application for their legal activities. Thus, in this study, any participant under the age of 18 years was not required to obtain parental written informed consent. In such case, participants were able to consent on their own behalf.

We propose a reference site for the site effect study in and around the Kathmandu valley, Nepal. The used data were the accelerograms recorded at two stations, DMG and KKA, and velocity seismograms co-recorded at the PKIN station during nine shallow local and regional earthquakes of local magnitude equal to or greater than 5.0. The DMG sta- tion is located on the thick sediments of the Kathmandu valley, whereas the others are rock sites. The KKA station is located on the granite and gneisses of the Shivapuri Lekh about 10 km northwest of the capital, and the PKIN station is in the tunnel of an old iron mine on the southern slope of the Phulchauki Hill about 15 km southeast. The spectral ratios of the ground motion records of the DMG station compared to those of the PKIN station, for all considered earthquakes, confirm that the DMG station has amplification ranging from 1 to 10 in the frequency range of 0.5– 10 Hz, and spectral ratios of the KKA station referenced by the PKIN station show that the KKA station has significant amplification in the frequency range of 4–10 Hz and the peak value of the spectral ratio is at most over 25. Therefore, the site amplification in and around Kathmandu valley would be significantly underestimated in the frequency range from 4 to 10 Hz if the records of the KKA station were used as a proxy for input seismic motions to the sediment. Based on the above analysis, we propose that the PKIN station should be considered as a reliable reference site for the assessment of seismic hazards in and around the Kathmandu valley.

Purpose: Knowledge on HIV and safe sex practices are the main determinants for the prevention and control of HIV/AIDS transmission. The aim of this study was to assess HIV awareness and safe sexual behavior among the female sex workers (FSWs) in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. Methods: The study was based on data secondary to Integrated Biological and Behavioral Surveillance surveys of 2093 FSWs in Kathmandu valley from 2006 to 2015. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify the factors associated with knowl- edge and misconceptions about HIV (BCDEF) and safe sexual practices (consistent condom use with regular clients and nonpaying partners).

Dispensing and prescription handling practice of Kathmandu valley districts were average. The studied showed some personnel working in the pharmacy opting to extract patient information from the prescription. Labelling seemed to be a dying art, only a few personnel agree to label majority of the dispensed product. The study done in Bara and Parsa districts found 91.4% dispensing practice being done by non-pharmacists. 12 The poor dispensing practice in community pharmacy is due to lack of qualified assistant pharmacist and pharmacist in community pharmacy service and, probably due to more focused on earning than service.

food supply chains. The Kathmandu Valley comprises about half the country’s urban population because of the presence of cumulative infrastructure [54]. The link between farmers and buyers in urban centers is vital in the case of the Kathmandu Valley where all the urban residents cannot afford to buy imported food as in developed countries. In simple words it can be said that not everyone has the same purchasing power. The Nepal Living Standard Survey (NLSS) showed that the share of food in total expenditure of the average Nepalese household is about 59%, whereas it is about 65% for those who are living below the poverty line [55]. It clearly shows that people spend more than half of their income just on food. Foods from closer agricultural land are cheaper due to less transportation cost compared to other sources of food. The Kathmandu Valley now imports a share of vegetables, fruits and other food items from India and China, its neighboring nations, signifying ever increasing threats to food security [56]. This channel is unreliable as it depends on the unstable economy and is even more vulnerable in the time of disaster. In the Kathmandu Valley, PUA farmers have knowledge of the environmental and social value of agriculture and its importance, but they still hesitate to accept it due to lack of policy motivation and incentives. This may be because of the absence of laws on the implementation of the formulated visions. The local food supply chain individually supports a household as the community does collectively over a large area [57] to achieve food security with other environment and socioeconomic benefits. From the urban buyers in developed countries, proximity to an organic agriculture area plays an important role, with its guaranteed quality and health value [47]. Conserved peri-urban agricultural land with networks to both rural and urban areas remains beneficial during food price inflation, fuel rises and extreme climate change events. It can be the node which produces food for both rural and urban zones or as a processor for the food produced by rural areas to cater to buyers’ demand. This strategically can help decentralized development with a food security perspective for the area. Thus, the opinion here is not just to achieve food security but to build the skills capacity not only among farmers; but also among every household to lead a sustainable livelihood [58]. Ultimately the juxtaposition of people’s preference, policies and environment ethics can make the transition towards sustainable PUA for sustainable development and easy food access to all.

In addition to the meteorology, also a good representation of the emissions is crucial in order to simulate air pollu- tants such as black carbon concentrations correctly. Using the state-of-the-art emission database EDGAR HTAP v2.2 in the WRF-Chem simulation leads to a very strong underestima- tion of the measured black carbon concentration at the Bode station, with a monthly mean bias of about 90 % in February and 80 % in May. Using top-down estimated emission fluxes for black carbon, this bias can be reduced to about 50 %. This confirms the strong need for an updated black carbon emis- sion database for this region. However, it also became clear that a simple correction of the emission fluxes using the top- down method by Mues et al. (2017) also has several limi- tations. One of these limitations is an over-representation of emissions which are relatively constant throughout the day (e.g., from brick kilns) while underrepresenting emissions which are mainly occurring during the daytime (e.g., traf- fic). Compared to the WRFchem_BC_D02 simulation, we notice that the nighttime black carbon relative MBs are vary- ing between − 57 and − 8 % in February and between − 52 % and − 25 % in May, while the daytime black carbon MBs are within a range of − 69 to − 45 % in February and − 69 to − 48 % in May. This is consistent with an underestima- tion of traffic emissions, as stated previously. In addition, the analysis showed that the monthly mean emissions currently used in the model cannot resolve short-term episodes with reduced or enhanced emission fluxes. The analysis of the ob- servations further suggests that such episodes play an impor- tant role in explaining the observed variation in daily black carbon concentrations in the valley. In order to further im- prove the simulation of black carbon, an updated emission database for the Kathmandu Valley and its surroundings is

The study revealed high rate of urban growth in Kathmandu valley. The main drivers of such growth are high population influx and improper land use plan. As a result, productive agricultural land, open area are being replaced by the concrete structures. This trend is expected to be more severe in future unless proper land use plans and policies are implemented. Various types of urban growth such as infill, extension and leapfrog were found to exist in the valley. However, infill type of urban growth is more hazardous in the sense that it fills up existing open area making cities congested and the consequences of such growth were apparent during Nepal Earthquake 2015, when many people lose their lives due to inaccessibility to the safe open places for emergency evacuation.

AOD in Kathmandu Valley have observed variation throughout the days of observation period. This variation is impacted by the changes in the meteorological parameters. The Angstorm’s parameters, α and β also show strong diurnal variation. The diurnal change in AOD and Angstrom’s parameters α and β on March 25, 2013 are shown in Figure-1 and Figure-2 respectively. AOD before noon is higher and gradually decreases to afternoon with relatively uniform values due to stable meteorological conditions. One of the affecting parameters to AOD is relative humidity which is higher (75.2%) at the morning relative to the afternoon (60.3%) 16 . The higher temperature during the day time causes evaporation or condensation of moister in the atmosphere that lowers down AOD and changes on the parameters α and β.

Significant levels of heavy metals were observed in bulk as well as particle size fractions of all the five land uses. Enrichment factors revealed that the Kathmandu valley dust is contaminated with Cu and the metal is enriched in all the land uses as well. Although each land use showed some variation in the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn due to different sources of contamination, the industrial dust was affected the most by Zn and Cu, and the heavy traffic road dust was mainly affected by Cd and Pb. Besides, the contamination level in all the land uses was higher as compared to the undisturbed (control) area for all metals investigated in this work. The levels of metals for different particle size fractions (both coarse and fine particle

Kathmandu valley (KV) emission. The share could be even higher if freight transport were also to be included. Total valley emission is estimated from the fuel consumption data which is obtained by the share of Kathmandu valley out of National Sales. The Kathmandu valley has dominant share of overall national fuel consumption as cities within the valley have high population density and high level of economic activities. As revealed in Table 4, vehicular emissions are contributing significantly, in adding up GHG and it will have profound effect in the climate of Kathmandu valley.

Citation: R Ghaju Shrestha, K Sawada, D Inoue, H Yoshinaga, B Malla, S Tan- dukar, D Bhandari, Y Tanaka, K Sei, J B Sherchand, E Haramoto. Comparison of Pathogenic Bacteria in Water and Fe- cal-Source Samples in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, Using High-Throughput DNA Microarray. Biomed J Sci & Tech Res 17(5)-2019. BJSTR. MS.ID.003060. Keywords: DNA Microarray; Fecal Con- tamination; Kathmandu Valley; Patho- genic Bacteria; Water Source

This study provides information about the sexual behaviors of the most at risk population – MSM in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. The majority of respondents practice unsafe sexual behaviors which include irregular condom and lubricant use, frequent and unprotected sex with many sex partners including female partners, and sex in exchange for money. MSM experience significant risk of HIV infection that can be attributed to their risky sexual behaviors. Thus, a HIV prevention program may become effective with a comprehensive intervention for MSMs practicing unsafe sexual behaviors, 35 and prioritizing partner tracing during HIV

One of the water sources, tanker water, seemed to be associated with a higher prevalence of intestinal parasites including the coccidian parasites. Tanker water was not treated water; the infection rate of C. cayetanensis was found higher than bottled water in another study too [23]. In Kathmandu valley, the source of tanker water might be polluted [22]. Cyclospora oocysts have been isolated from sewage, river and municipal pipe water [22, 29]. Similarly, prevalence C. parvum in untreated was detected most than bottle water among slum people which is similar to the findings of previous study [22]. It might be due to the supply of water that is not tested and treated properly and regularly, and might be in risk of contamination from sewage.

This study focuses on assessing the underlying factors responsible for low adult immunization in the peri-urban areas of Kathmandu Valley using the individual level information. We attempt to assess the same by applying the contingent valuation approach by asking an open ended WTP question for HB vaccine to the unimmunized adults. We further justify the application of two-part model in this study by showing that there are large numbers of zero responses to the maximum WTP question and that the problem of selection bias does not appear in making vaccine decisions. We show that age and status of employment are the only significant determinants among the socio-

Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, is typical of areas in devel- oping countries where rapid urbanisation has occurred. The population of this valley increased from 1 645 091 in 2001 to 2 510 788 in 2011. 12 In this valley, in 2003, 8.2% of the total outpatient department visits were by patients with diarrhoeal disease. 13 In 2008, a national policy document 14 stressed the importance of improving the health status of Nepal ’ s urban population by provid- ing a sustainable water supply and adequate sanitation. In the greater Kathmandu region, Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL) is responsible for supplying improved water, and in 2010 KUKL covered 79% of the population in that region. 15 Although this met MDGs for population coverage with safe water, 16 the service provided by KUKL has not been formally assessed in terms of individual health. Evaluating the association between water sources, access to the amount of water and the possibility of developing diarrhoea, particularly diarrhoeal disease, is critical in planning future public-health interventions. 14