‘Need cheaper cooling strategies’

MUMBAI: As temperatures rise throughout the world and heat waves become more intense, is reliance on air conditioners sustainable? What are the cheaper and sustainable cooling strategies that can be adapted by cities? How does heat affect the human body? A two-paper Lancet series on ‘heat and health’ published recently highlights solutions to such questions to combat heat stress.

Air conditioners are the most common cooling solution implemented worldwide. “From a health perspective, use of air conditioning provides numerous benefits,” said authors. “Reduction in indoor temperatures dramatically alleviates heat strain. A working air conditioning unit in a home is the strongest protective factor against heat-related fatalities. In hospital wards, its presence reduces the risk of mortality during a heat extreme by 40%.” Yet, there are urban and rural disparities in access to air conditioners and affordability is also a concern.

According to the authors, identifying and implementing sustainable cooling strategies broadly accessible to all sections of society is a pressing need. “Not just air conditioners, in rural India, people cannot afford to buy air coolers too,” said Premsagar Tasgaonkar, a researcher with Watershed Organisation Trust that studied indoor and outdoor temperature in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district and made policy recommendations like subsidies on air coolers during summers, building canopies and community halls every few kilometres, and getting people to use tiled roofs for better indoor temperatures.

The authors of the papers offered similar solutions such as fountains providing spray with moving water to accelerate evaporative cooling, bodies of water, large grasslands with trees, canopies located over outdoor areas among others. A Lancet countdown had estimated 31,000 heatrelated deaths of people above 65 in India in 2018.