In Brief

Tackling air pollution

In 2012, about 7 million people died—one in eight worldwide deaths—because of air pollution exposure, according to new estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO). This finding is more than double previous estimates and establishes air pollution as the single largest environmental health risk. Reducing air pollution could save millions of lives.

The new data reveal a stronger link between both indoor and outdoor air pollution exposure and cardiovascular disease, such as strokes and ischemic heart disease, as well as between air pollution and cancer. Air pollution has already been shown to play a role in the development of respiratory disease, including acute respiratory infections and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Regionally, low- and middle-income countries in the WHO’s Southeast Asia and Western Pacific Regions bore the largest burden in 2012—3.3 million deaths were linked to indoor air pollution and 2.6 million deaths to outdoor air pollution.

South Asia’s infrastructure gap

It will take investment of as much as $2.5 trillion in transportation, electricity, water supply and sanitation, solid waste management, telecommunications, and irrigation for south Asia to bridge its infrastructure gap, according to a new World Bank report, Reducing Poverty by Closing South Asia's Infrastructure Gap.

South Asia’s economy grew on the order of 6.7 percent annually from 2000 to 2012. However, according to the report, the region’s growing demand for infrastructure has widened an existing infrastructure gap, defined as the difference between south Asia’s development goals and its ability to achieve them.

The report also emphasizes how women, the poor, and marginalized social groups are particularly affected.

The gap has taken a toll on the region’s growth and on households. Only two in five people in south Asia have access to improved sanitation. Seventy-one percent of people in the region have access to electricity versus 92 percent in east Asia. The effects of these deficiencies are intertwined, and factors such as the inadequate power supply, poor health, and limited transportation have kept south Asia’s manufacturing sector from growing as fast as once anticipated. Employment has suffered as a result, the report finds.

Growing greener cities

A new Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report shows that urban and periurban agriculture—cultivation, processing, and distribution of food around cities—is...