KATHMANDU, Feb 6: The latest international report has ranked Kathmandu as the seventh worst place among 290 cities in the world in terms of severity of pollution.



In the analysis 'Pollution Index 2017' by Serbia-based research company Numbeo, Kathmandu performed even worse than Beijing of China and New Delhi of India, which rank 14th and 16th places respectively in the most-polluted cities index of the world. Kathmandu, with a pollution index of 95.73, is comfortably above Beijing and Delhi which have the pollution index of 93.38 and 92.61 respectively.



Kathmandu slightly avoided being ranked as the sixth worst-polluted city, which is taken by Dhaka of Bangladesh with its pollution index of 95.91. After Kathmandu, Ulaanbaatar of Mongolia ranks in the eighth place, followed by Karachi of Pakistan.



Pollution Index published by Numbeo is an estimation of the overall pollution in the cities. According to the firm, the biggest weight is given to air pollution and then to water pollution/accessibility, the two main pollution factors. Likewise, small weight is given to other pollutants.



Numbeo had previously ranked Kathmandu in the third place in 2016, with pollution index of 96.66 back then. Kathmandu was also ranked in the third place in the mid-2015 by the firm.



According to Numbeo's Pollution Index 2017, Kabul of Afghanistan is the most polluted city, followed by Accra of Ghana and Tetovo of Macedonia. On the other hand, the least polluted city in the ranking is Trondheim of Norway, followed by Wellington of New Zealand and Reykjavik of Iceland.