AUG 11, 2002

It is also modifying rainfall patterns and endangering the population, according to a UN-backed study just released.

'There are also global implications, not least because a pollution parcel like this, which stretches 3 km high, can travel half way round the globe in a week,' said United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) chief Klaus Toepfer.

He told a London press conference on Friday that the pollution was caused by the burning of agricultural wastes and fossil fuels, and inefficient cooker emissions from burning wood, cow dung and other bio-fuels.

'More research is needed, but these initial findings clearly indicate that this growing cocktail of soot, particles, aerosols and other pollutants are becoming a major environmental hazard for Asia,' he said.

A 200-strong team of scientists found that the strip of pollutants was reducing sunlight hitting the earth's surface by as much as 10 per cent to 15 per cent.

Although the study focused on the impact on South Asia, scientists pointed out that the haze problem could be even worse in South-east and East Asia, including China.

Global models suggested that the blanket may reduce precipitation over north-west India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, western China and the western part of Central Asia by between 20 and 40 per cent.

'One should note recent conditions,' said the report.

'There have been two consecutive droughts in 1999 and 2000 in Pakistan and the north-western parts of India and increased flooding in the high rainfall areas of Bangladesh, Nepal and the northeastern states of India.'

A 10-per cent reduction in the amount of solar energy hitting the region's oceans in turn reduces the evaporation of the moisture which controls summer rainfall, the report said.

This may already be having significant impacts on agriculture.

The study said that the haze may be reducing India's winter rice harvests by as much as 10 per cent.

The pollution could also be leading to 'several hundreds of thousands' of premature deaths from respiratory diseases, the report suggested, citing dramatic rises in deaths from air pollution in seven Indian cities.

The UNEP team included Mr Veerabhadran Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography in the United States, Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen of the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany and Mr Ashesh Prosad Mitra of the National Physical Laboratory in India.

Their findings came just weeks before the World Summit on Sustainable Development, dubbed Earth Summit II, in Johannesburg.

The summit, from Aug 26 to Sept 4, will come 10 years after the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

Most of the goals set at Rio have not been met. --AFP

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