A heat wave is a period of abnormally high temperatures, more than the normal maximum temperature that occurs during the summer season in the North-Western swathes of India, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.
Extreme temperatures and resultant atmospheric conditions adversely affect people living in these regions, causing physiological stress that can kill.
The India Meteorological Department has warned that heat-wave conditions will prevail over Odisha and Madhya Pradesh over the coming days.
There was a 61% increase in the number of deaths due to heat stoke across India between 2004 to 2013, according to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, with indications that these numbers represent a vast under-reporting.
More than 800 people have died this month in a wave of heat rippling across India, 550 in Andhra Pradesh and over 200 in Telangana, according to this DNA report.
As heatwave kills more than 600 across India, Ahmedabad action plan shows how lives could be saved
Shoaib Daniyal
The Gujarati city is the only place in the country with a strategy to combat heat-related problems.
A searing heatwave has hit large parts of India with parts of Telangana and Uttar Pradesh seeing temperatures as high as 48°C. More than 600 people have been killed by the heat this summer, as per news reports.
The Indian Meteorological Department, on Monday, reported severe heat wave conditions in parts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, West Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were classified as suffering from a heat wave.
At temperatures above 40°C, a “heat wave” refers to a departure of between 4°C-5°C from the normal temperature while a “severe heat wave” refers to a departure of more than 6°C.
At these temperatures, chances of a heatstroke, a possibly fatal illness which results from the overheating of the body, are high for people outdoors.
Heatwave impact
Andhra Pradesh, the state most affected by this heatwave, has seen 42 deaths from heatstroke alone. Following the death of two taxi drivers in Kolkata, also from heatstroke, taxi unions have decided to shut down cab serviced between 11 am to 4 pm.
This the most severe heat wave in India since 2010, when an estimated 250 people died from heat related causes. The 2010 heat wave was part of a global summer heat wave which was one of the most severe heat waves since temperatures started being recorded.
Governments in India, though, seem to have learnt little from past heat-based natural disasters. The Central government and the National Disaster Management Authority have not put in place preventive measures for the summer nor do they have any curative plans lined up after the large number of casualties. The union home ministry has not even declared a heat wave as a “national disaster”.
This inaction is matched by state and local governments. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of the worst affected state, Andhra Pradesh has not gone beyond offering his personal advice to for people going out into the sun to take preventive steps in order to prevent heat damage.
The lone exception
The one exception to this general trend of government inaction, though, is Ahmedabad, where the city’s municipal corporation has taken concrete steps to prevent deaths and injury due to heat exposure. Starting from assigning different alerts for different levels of heat to a mapped out action plan to save lives on the ground, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has had a comprehensive Heat Action Plan in place since 2013.
Currently, Ahmedabad is the only city in India to have a operational heat alert system. The plan was developed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the Indian Institute of Public Health, the Natural Resources Defense Council (a non-governmental organisation based in New York) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (an American university).
The Heat Action Plan is a four-pronged strategy. The first involves a communications outreach which informs people about the risk of heat illness and preventive measures to take. This year, new media such as mobile messaging service, WhatsApp, will also be used to as a dissemination channel along with more traditional means such as posters and inter-personal communication.
Information posters to prevent against heat illness. Source: Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2015
The second involves a warning system in the case of a heatwave with actionables mapped out for various governmental agencies.
Communication plan when a heat alert is activated. Source: Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2015.
The UK and Australia also have heat warning systems in place.
India’s current heatwave is predicted by the Meteorological Department to go on for a few days more, which would lead to hundreds of completely avoidable deaths simply because India’s governments do not have any systems in place to warn of heat waves or fight heat illness.
The Indian Meteorological Department, on Monday, reported severe heat wave conditions in parts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, West Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Chhattisgarh were classified as suffering from a heat wave.
At temperatures above 40°C, a “heat wave” refers to a departure of between 4°C-5°C from the normal temperature while a “severe heat wave” refers to a departure of more than 6°C.
At these temperatures, chances of a heatstroke, a possibly fatal illness which results from the overheating of the body, are high for people outdoors.
Heatwave impact
Andhra Pradesh, the state most affected by this heatwave, has seen 42 deaths from heatstroke alone. Following the death of two taxi drivers in Kolkata, also from heatstroke, taxi unions have decided to shut down cab serviced between 11 am to 4 pm.
This the most severe heat wave in India since 2010, when an estimated 250 people died from heat related causes. The 2010 heat wave was part of a global summer heat wave which was one of the most severe heat waves since temperatures started being recorded.
Governments in India, though, seem to have learnt little from past heat-based natural disasters. The Central government and the National Disaster Management Authority have not put in place preventive measures for the summer nor do they have any curative plans lined up after the large number of casualties. The union home ministry has not even declared a heat wave as a “national disaster”.
This inaction is matched by state and local governments. Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of the worst affected state, Andhra Pradesh has not gone beyond offering his personal advice to for people going out into the sun to take preventive steps in order to prevent heat damage.
The lone exception
The one exception to this general trend of government inaction, though, is Ahmedabad, where the city’s municipal corporation has taken concrete steps to prevent deaths and injury due to heat exposure. Starting from assigning different alerts for different levels of heat to a mapped out action plan to save lives on the ground, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has had a comprehensive Heat Action Plan in place since 2013.
Currently, Ahmedabad is the only city in India to have a operational heat alert system. The plan was developed by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, the Indian Institute of Public Health, the Natural Resources Defense Council (a non-governmental organisation based in New York) and the Georgia Institute of Technology (an American university).
The Heat Action Plan is a four-pronged strategy. The first involves a communications outreach which informs people about the risk of heat illness and preventive measures to take. This year, new media such as mobile messaging service, WhatsApp, will also be used to as a dissemination channel along with more traditional means such as posters and inter-personal communication.
Information posters to prevent against heat illness. Source: Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2015
The second involves a warning system in the case of a heatwave with actionables mapped out for various governmental agencies.
Communication plan when a heat alert is activated. Source: Ahmedabad Heat Action Plan 2015.
The third step involves training health care professionals to better respond to heat illness while the fourth involves adapting the physical plan of the city to better cope with heat: mapping high-risk areas, making potable water easily accessible and building temporary cooling spaces during periods of extreme heat.
Governmental strategies to combat excessive heat are the global norm. After the 2003 heat wave in France, which killed almost 15,000 people, the French government formulated a heat health watch warning system, a nationwide system of combating heat illness in case of abnormally hot weather. One study estimates that during the 2006 heat wave, 4,400 deaths were avoided as a result of this system being in place.
The UK and Australia also have heat warning systems in place.
India’s current heatwave is predicted by the Meteorological Department to go on for a few days more, which would lead to hundreds of completely avoidable deaths simply because India’s governments do not have any systems in place to warn of heat waves or fight heat illness.
Original Article :http://scroll.in/article/729939/as-heatwave-kills-more-than-500-across-india-ahmedabad-model-shows-how-lives-could-be-saved
How to cope with heat waves (In News , Many people died , becomes imp , DownToEarth)
Accurate weather prediction and coordinated action plan hold the key
The Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) at Gandhi Nagar carried out research along with Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad on heat waves and its impacts on human health. It is known that temperatures in the city during summers rise up to 47°C. It results in several health consequences, sometimes reaching extreme levels; many people lose their lives.
In 2010, the city witnessed around 300 deaths; in 2013, 160 deaths occurred due to heat waves. To deal with the challenges, IIPH along with the municipal corporation developed a heat mitigation programme to save people from the impact of heat waves.
In this programme, the important intervention was the prediction of weather at least seven days in advance. Then people were alerted about the weather conditions. They were allowed to take rest in the afternoon. Additional water was supplied to people during extreme heat waves. More public places were created for people in the city where they could take rest.
image
Ahmedabad city is the first city in South Asia with a heat action plan, which was put into place after 300 people died of heat stroke in 2010 (photo Sunil Kumar Singh)
These measures helped saving many lives (see 'Ahmedabad's beat the heat plan'. A particular challenge in the action plan related to spreading awareness. For the purpose, posters and pamphlets were designed and the administration tried to reach out to people. The pamphlets were used to give health tips and distributed among students who were asked to carry them home.
Not only families but medical workers and community members were provided health fact sheets and asked to reach out to groups in the city. These efforts were needed to prepare residents of the city for the summer season.
Hospitals were prepared for the emergency challenges arising from heat waves. Medical staff were trained specially to give the required care to such patients brought to hospitals.
By doing this, Ahmedabad became the first city in South Asia to implement a successful pilot Heat Wave Action Plan.
It is known now that climate change is fuelling more intense and frequent heat waves. Many cities and also district administrations can adopt this action plan.
It needs nothing but co-ordination among several departments and groups, public awareness of the risks of extreme heat, and training of medical and community workers to prevent and respond to heat-related illnesses.
(As told to Kundan Pandey)
Dileep Mavalankar is Director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhi Nagar
The Indian Institute of Public Health (IIPH) at Gandhi Nagar carried out research along with Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad on heat waves and its impacts on human health. It is known that temperatures in the city during summers rise up to 47°C. It results in several health consequences, sometimes reaching extreme levels; many people lose their lives.
In 2010, the city witnessed around 300 deaths; in 2013, 160 deaths occurred due to heat waves. To deal with the challenges, IIPH along with the municipal corporation developed a heat mitigation programme to save people from the impact of heat waves.
In this programme, the important intervention was the prediction of weather at least seven days in advance. Then people were alerted about the weather conditions. They were allowed to take rest in the afternoon. Additional water was supplied to people during extreme heat waves. More public places were created for people in the city where they could take rest.
image
Ahmedabad city is the first city in South Asia with a heat action plan, which was put into place after 300 people died of heat stroke in 2010 (photo Sunil Kumar Singh)
These measures helped saving many lives (see 'Ahmedabad's beat the heat plan'. A particular challenge in the action plan related to spreading awareness. For the purpose, posters and pamphlets were designed and the administration tried to reach out to people. The pamphlets were used to give health tips and distributed among students who were asked to carry them home.
Not only families but medical workers and community members were provided health fact sheets and asked to reach out to groups in the city. These efforts were needed to prepare residents of the city for the summer season.
Hospitals were prepared for the emergency challenges arising from heat waves. Medical staff were trained specially to give the required care to such patients brought to hospitals.
By doing this, Ahmedabad became the first city in South Asia to implement a successful pilot Heat Wave Action Plan.
It is known now that climate change is fuelling more intense and frequent heat waves. Many cities and also district administrations can adopt this action plan.
It needs nothing but co-ordination among several departments and groups, public awareness of the risks of extreme heat, and training of medical and community workers to prevent and respond to heat-related illnesses.
(As told to Kundan Pandey)
Dileep Mavalankar is Director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhi Nagar
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