As per the latest report by Pollution Index 2016, Kathmandu has been ranked the third most polluted city in the world.

Published by Serbia-based research website Numbeo.com, the latest pollution index shows Nepal’s Capital city sitting in the third position of the pollution ranking with a pollution index of 96.66. The last pollution ranking published in the middle of 2015 had also placed Kathmandu in the third position while in the beginning of 2015 Kathmandu was in the fifth position.

The rankings are are based on perceptions of visitors to the website and includes some relevant data from World Health Organisation and other institutions, Numbeo.com says about the pollution index. The index is an estimation of the overall pollution in the city with the biggest weight given to air pollution and then to water pollution.

The dismal performance in pollution index was expected as a 2014 report of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment shows that Kathmandu air contains 400 micrograms of particulate matter up to 10 micrometres in size per cubic metre or the PM10 is 400µg/m3.

The existing situation of water pollution is equally troubling. According to a research conducted by Bagmati Civilisation Integrated Development Committee in October last year, water in the Bagmati River at Minbhawan contains 0.53 milligrams of dissolved oxygen per litre or the DO is 0.53mg/l.

In the Pollution Index for Country 2016, Nepal sits in the 17th place with Egypt as the most polluted country in the world.