Botswana faces intense heat-wave threats
Botswana has been recording high temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius since the heatwave began, signalling the startling impacts of global warming.
A United Nations report that came out this week foreshadows a future with possible deadlier, more frequent and intense heat-related humanitarian emergencies.
At the rate that the heat is increasing, Botswana might just break its highest temperature of 41.1 degrees Celsius recorded in 2011; talk about being in a furnace!
A recent public notice from the Department of Metrological
Services warning of searing heat indicates that maximum temperatures are expected to significantly rise across the country, reaching heatwave thresholds.
“Very hot temperatures of 37 to 42°C are expected over most parts of the country. Maximum temperatures in the capital Gaborone are expected to average 38°C, while Francistown and Shakawe are forecast to reach 40°C and 42°C, respectively,” the notice reads.
The weather experts called on the public to take necessary precautions such as taking a lot of water and avoiding direct sunlight particularly during peak hours between 10am and 3pm when it’s usually the hottest. Intense heat has been spreading across Africa. Globally, the summer of 2022 has been the hottest for China and Europe with temperatures going up to 40 degrees Celsius.
India and Pakistan are also reportedly experiencing an earth shattering heatwave with temperatures apparently reaching 45 degrees Celsius.
The heatwaves are a stark sign of intense global warming and evidence that climate change is already having severe impacts across our planet, bringing new and previously unimaginable challenges to the people least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.
A report released by the United Nations Under-Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths titled ‘Extreme Heat: Preparing for the Heatwaves of the Future,’ paints a scary picture of the heat situation and provides a sobering review of how increase in deadly heatwaves – threatens to drive new emergency needs in the not-sodistant future.
The findings of the report, released a month ahead of the much-anticipated 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 27), are startling and disturbing, as they indicate that heatwaves already kill thousands of people every year, and they will become deadlier with further increment of climate change.
The report warns that heatwaves demand a humanitarian response that is locally grounded, acts quickly on the basis of data and analysis, and works in partnerships with local governments, civil society and development actors to protect the most vulnerable people.
Heatwaves cause detrimental health and environmental natural disasters such as heat stroke, severe dehydration, acute cerebrovascular accidents and thrombogenesis (development of blood clots), diarrhoea in children and wildfires.