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Sharing the similar vision of sustainability and commitment to climate change, Annapurna Media Network and Khaalisisi have joined hands together in a campaign, ‘Unity for Sustainability’.

The two-year campaign will be a collaborative effort of AMN and climate stakeholders through green partnership. With this partnership, they hope that they will fight against the effects of climate change and foster sustainable development, read a statement.

Khaalisisi is a tech driven social enterprise that integrates the informal waste sector into the formal system to solve the growing crisis of improper waste management.

With the vision to build Nepal as the world’s top recycler, Khaalisisi primarily connects the waste entrepreneurs with waste sellers through their digital platform.

By not disrupting the existing value chain, khaalisisi has been working with a network of more than 300 Khaalisisi friends.

They collect all kinds of dry waste including plastic, electronic waste, books and newspapers.

They have partnered with student groups who design waste management programs and raise awareness on the matter. They have also initiated campaigns to showcase waste as a sustainable resource by employing single women to make school supplies out of waste cloth.

There is a possibility of light rain with thunder and lightning in some of the hilly areas of the country due to the influence of the western low pressure system.

According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, there is a possibility of thunder and light rainfall in some of the hilly areas of the Gandaki Province and Province 1.

The Department has requested all to take necessary precaution as there is a possibility of thunder and lightning in some of the places of hilly areas.

According to the Meteorological Forecasting Division, the minimum temperature in Kathmandu Valley today is 14.6 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature is 29.3 degrees Celsius.

Similarly, the lowest temperature of Jumla is 4.1 degrees Celsius and the maximum temperature of Nepalgunj is 37.0 degrees Celsius. RSS

Not a single country managed to meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) air quality standard in 2021, a survey of pollution data in 6,475 cities showed on Tuesday, and smog even rebounded in some regions after a COVID-related dip, Reuters reported.

The WHO recommends that average annual readings of small and hazardous airborne particles known as PM2.5 should be no more than 5 micrograms per cubic metre after changing its guidelines last year, saying that even low concentrations caused significant health risks.

But only 3.4% of the surveyed cities met the standard in 2021, according to data complied by IQAir, a Swiss pollution technology company that monitors air quality. As many as 93 cities saw PM2.5 levels at 10 times the recommended level.

“There are a lot of countries that are making big strides in reduction,” said Christi Schroeder, air quality science manager with IQAir. “China started with some very big numbers and they are continuing to decrease over time. But there are also places in the world where it is getting significantly worse.”

India’s overall pollution levels worsened in 2021 and New Delhi remained the world’s most polluted capital, the data showed. Bangladesh was the most polluted country, also unchanged from the previous year, while Chad ranked second after the African country’s data was included for the first time, according to Reuters.

China, which has been waging war on pollution since 2014, fell to 22nd in the PM2.5 rankings in 2021, down from 14th place a year earlier, with average readings improving slightly over the year to 32.6 micrograms, IQAir said.

Hotan in the northwestern region of Xinjiang was China’s worst performing city, with average PM2.5 readings of more than 100 micrograms, largely caused by sandstorms.

It fell to third on the list of the world’s most polluted cities after being overtaken by Bhiwadi and Ghaziabad, both in India, Reuters reported.

Sri Lankan police said on Sunday two men collapsed and died while waiting in separate queues to secure fuel amid sky-rocketing prices leading to record inflation, The Economic Times reported.

The men, in their seventies, died while they were waiting for petrol and kerosene oil in two different parts of the country, said police spokesman Nalin Thalduwa in commercial capital Colombo.

For weeks people have been queuing up at pumps, often for hours, and the country has been under rolling powercuts.

"One was a 70-year-old three-wheeler driver who was a diabetic and heart patient while the second was a 72-year-old, both had been waiting in line for about four hours for fuel oil," Thalduwa said.

On Sunday Sri Lanka suspended operations at its only fuel refinery after crude oil stocks ran out, said Ashoka Ranwala the president of the Petroleum General Employees' Union, according to The Economic Times.

The energy ministry could not be immediately reached for a comment.

Use of kerosene oil has increased after low-income families began shifting away from cooking gas due to price increases. On Sunday Laugfs Gas, the country's second largest supplier raised prices by 1,359 rupees ($4.94) for a 12.5 kg cylinder, the company said in a statement.

Sri Lanka has been struggling to find dollars to pay for increasingly expensive fuel shipments since January, with its foreign currency reserves dipping to $2.31 billion in February, The Economic Times reported.

15.1 percent, among the highest in Asia, with food inflation soaring to 25.7 percent, latest government data showed.

Earlier this month Sri Lanka's central bank floated the rupee causing the currency to plummet by more than 30 percent to trade at about 275 rupees per US dollar.

Milk powder prices increased by 250 rupees ($0.90) for a 400g pack on Saturday, prompting restaurant owners to raise the cost of a cup of milk tea to 100 rupees, according to The Economic Times.