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Several parts of Asia are currently reeling under the effects of extreme heat. Although heatwaves are a common occurrence in this part of the world, the change in frequency, duration and intensity of extreme heat is creating challenges for preparedness and planning for day-to-day survival for all.
Scientists fear 2024 could be another year of record-breaking temperatures but are we learning from our experiences of extreme heat to plan more effectively? Here, researchers from the ANTICIPATE project reflect on the lessons we need to learn from heatwaves to prepare and respond better, faster, and in a widespread manner for extreme heat in the future.
According to India’s Atlas on Weather Disasters, the country experienced 35 heat wave days between April 12 – June 23 in 2023, which affected many areas of the country. By the end of June 2023 the soaring temperatures – up to 45C (113F) coupled with humidity – had led to increased mortality, extensive morbidity due to heat stress and led to water scarcity, power outages and loss of work for thousands more. For example, in Gujarat, rising temperatures led to a water crisis in 20 districts affecting thousands of citizens, most of them poor, women, and casual workers in rural and urban settlements.
As with most natural hazard-induced disasters, the heat waves affected poor, vulnerable and marginalised people the most. However, more unusually, the eastern Indian states of West Bengal and Orissa, traditionally more affected by cyclones and floods were also severely affected by the unprecedented heat waves.
Therefore, extreme heat events currently sweeping across India in 2024 seems like déjà vu on steroids. In 2023, post-summer, the All India Disaster Mitigation Institute (AIDMI), a local partner of ANTICIPATE project, conducted a reflective session on what worked and why in terms of measure to deal with extreme heat in rural Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. The affected farmers themselves indicated what they know and can be done better. Here are four lessons learnt from this work and wider research on heat stress across AIDMI work.
It is essential to acknowledge that the severe impact of the 2023 heatwave was primarily a result of collective under preparedness. States in India did not have enough local action plans, trained personnel, and adequate dedicated budgets to fight the battle against heat waves, especially at grassroots levels.
Though heatwave deaths have substantially come down more needs to be done. For example, India’s healthcare system was put under strain by a sudden rise in heat-related illnesses in 2023. According to a media report, in June 2023, the largest hospital in Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh was at full capacity and could not accommodate any more patients.
This highlights the need for additional medical infrastructure and serge capacity for training healthcare professionals in handling such conditions, and to learn from areas such as the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation who took measures to update its Heat Action Plan and better prepared public hospitals to receive heat affected patients. The government at all levels in synergy should prioritise shaping collective and localised heatwave preparedness and response plans.
India’s Metrological Department has made progress via more accurate forecasting as well better user centred dissemination of the forecast. Now a better translation of forecasts into preparedness actions, and protection from the possible extreme heat loss and damage is needed. Preparedness plans should include heatwave warnings that can reach out to more occupational groups such as migrant labour, street businesses and construction labourers.
News channel, social media, television, and radio, and strategic community-wide awareness campaigns should also be used to communicate the health risks and support ensuring access to drinking water facilities for all and accessibility to cooling centres for protection.
The heatwave brought to light the socio-economic disparities in India. Daily wage earners, who often lack basic facilities such as sheds to rest, recline, and drinking water, suffered the most during these heatwave conditions. For example, a local farmer we interviewed in May 2023 for the ANTICIPATE project said: “in recent times, the temperature rises have become more extreme, extending even into the traditionally cooler winter months. This shift has had a profound impact on agricultural practices and poses new challenges for us, with drying up water sources, crop yield suffering and scorching of soil.”
Thus, it is crucial to reformulate government schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to provide comfortable working conditions, facilitating cash withdrawals, and providing work that can be done in sheds during crises like heatwaves. These may be a simple shaded airy shelter with drinking water facility or a well constructed, air conditioned hall with toilet and drinking water facilities depending upon the available resources. Importantly, the heat vulnerability assessments must consider gender, economic status, and type of occupation.
AIDMI’s ongoing work on extreme heat and small business shows the close relationship between extreme heat and small businesses in India’s informal sector. Often women or family owned, these businesses suffer loss of vital income, such as for food. The ongoing study in Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, and Uttar Pradesh suggest that heatwave plans, policy, and strategies adequately understand the impacts on small businesses, or their possible contribution in building resilience to extreme heat itself.
We know that the ‘urban heat island’ effect exacerbates the effects of heatwaves, with cities experiencing the highest temperatures during heatwaves. In 2023 we learned that we need to better understand and respond to concepts beyond urban heat islands; sharper targeting of left-out constituents such as small businesses; retrofit existing and better design new buildings to be “cool”; and finance actions by affected populations that has worked so that the impact of these actions spread and the actions themselves spread.
AIDMI’s work on extreme heat and ANTICIPATE also find that focus on ‘urban’ and metropolitan cities is much higher than in rural areas. Work with communities suggests that in rural North Gujarat extreme heat affects in a village or a set of villages is comparable to heat island effect in cities. We can also learn from rural and vernacular architectures to deal with extreme heat.
For example, rural buildings have many inbuilt measures to keep the home or building cool from extreme heat such as ventilation between the roof and the wall. In contrast, urban building bylaws do not provide for new buildings to adapt “cooling” measures such as white roof or planting shrubs on the terrace and balconies or trees in the compound or surrounding areas to start with. Building bylaws should be urgently reviewed to retrofit existing buildings and plan new buildings to be “cool”.
Heatwaves remind us of how climate change can impact the economy, our daily lives and the importance of reducing greenhouse gases. While we cannot undo the impacts of previous heatwaves, we should learn lessons to prepare better for what is to come.
All, national to local governments; small to large private sector businesses; and civil society organisations must develop robust heat action plans, increase efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, plan sustainable cities, strengthen healthcare infrastructure, and urgently protect India’s poor and vulnerable populations. To accelerate its efforts, we need to consider innovative financing solutions to reach the affected populations at speed and scale, in order to protect from the devastating consequences of heatwaves.
