Pakistan, India reel under intense heat wave
PESHAWAR, April 30, (Reuters) - Pakistan issued a heat warning after the hottest March in 61 years while in parts of neighbouring India schools were shut and streets deserted as an intense heave wave showed no signs of abating.
Pakistan's Federal Minister for
Climate Change, Sherry Rehman, urged federal and provincial governments to take precautionary measures to manage the intense heat wave, which touched highs of 47 degrees Celsius.
“South Asia is faced with what has been a record-breaking heatwave. It started in early April and continues to leave people gasping in whatever shade they find,” Rehman said. Temperatures were predicted to rise by 6- 8 degrees Celsius above average temperatures.
More than a billion people are at risk of heat-related impacts in the region, scientists warned, linking the intense summer to climate change. The government has told provincial disaster management authorities to prepare for the risk of flash- flooding in northern mountainous provinces due to glacial melting. Glaciers in the Himalaya, Hindu Kush and Karkoram mountain ranges have melted rapidly, creating glacial lakes which are at risk of sudden hazardous flooding.Around 7 mn people are vulnerable.
A senior scientist at the India Meteorological Department said heat conditions would persist for at least the next three days, but that temperatures would fall after the arrival of monsoons, expected by May. The health problems triggered by the heatwave were posing a bigger worry than the expected fourth wave of Covid-19, doctors in India said.
“We are getting many patients who have suffered heatstroke or other heat-related problems,” said Mona Desai, former president of Ahmedabad Medical Association. She said that 60- 70% of the patients were school- aged complaining of vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal colic, weakness and other symptoms.
In Pakistan, the lead up to the religious holiday of Eid was dampened by the intense heat and power cuts as most of the population refrained from eating food and drinking water during daylight hours for the holy month of Ramadan.