Changing Glaciers and Hydrology in Asia - Environmental Health at ...

women and children who cook and heat their homes with biomass, and to urban dwellerswhere multiple sources contribute to high levels of air pollution (USAID Asia 2010; and seeFigure 5.1 on previous page). Thus, the vulnerability of poor health status can be reduced.Strong synergies can be realized from developing programs and projects that integrate ongoingresearch into the impacts of black carbon and other aerosol emissions (from indoor pollution toregional climate impacts) with health and glacier melt issues – i.e., partners should includeresearchers, government, health sector specialists, and technology developers. USAID’s SERVIR-Himalaya (to be located at ICIMOD) should be a partner. SERVIR enables the use of Earthobservations and predictive models; a focus of SERVIR-Himalaya is aerosol emissions and airquality.5.3.1 Focus on Reducing Emissions of Black Carbon and Other AerosolsUSAID can design programs to reduce emissions of black carbon and other aerosols, especiallyin urban areas and in all areas where biomass cooking is common. As sources include dust, openfires (such as forest fires), biomass burning for domestic cooking and heating, and industriessuch as brick kilns, needed programs will be largely integrated governance (policy andenforcement) and technological development and implementation (improved cook stoves,infrastructure such as street design, industrial energy sources, and control of open fires andwaste burning).Sectors AddressedSectors included are health and energy. Forestry, agriculture, and industrial sectors can also beaddressed, as the sources of black carbon and aerosols include forest fires, agriculture-relatedfires, and industries that emit black carbon and other aerosols.Illustrative ProgramsIllustrative programs with a focus on reducing emissions of black carbon and other aerosolsinclude the following:1. Establish weather/climate stations (including air pollution measurement for cities andalso glacier lake monitoring where relevant) in educational institutions that wouldreport data to the country-level Departments of Hydrology and Meteorology and tolocal radio stations for public dissemination (see also programs described in Section 5.1).2. Develop and implement policies to control industrial emission of aerosols, includingblack carbon, e.g., by requiring low-emitting technologies or control technologies, suchas less polluting brick kiln technologies; provide incentives that reward reduction ofblack carbon emissions.3. Promote the development of several types of advanced cook stoves, with priority placedon capturing emissions rather than exporting them to the outdoors. Previous work hasshown that adoption rates rise when communities realize the health impacts of black68