Heat Waves, People And The Economy. What's Happening?

Earlier this month, 14 people died in Navi Mumbai during an awards ceremony because of a heat wave. Along with Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, Odisha and coastal Andhra Pradesh were in the midst of heat waves, according to the India Meteorological Department.

What's being done?

An analysis of existing Heat Action Plans highlight the need for measures on a national scale. Existing heat action plans drawn up by cities, districts and states fail to take into account local conditions, exclude vulnerable groups and suffer from lack of funding, among other drawbacks.

According to a study documenting the impact of heat stress on informal sector women workers by Integrated Research and Action for Development, most women surveyed were prone to heat exhaustion and heat rashes, with a few of the respondents having suffered from heatstroke. Since these women spend a long duration of the day in the sun, it increases the chances of developing problems faced due to heat stress, the study said.

Of all the daily wage workers surveyed, 80% of the hawkers and vendors, 78% of the construction workers and 64% of the maids and sweepers reported that they do not take any kind of treatment for heat-related illness, due to financial constraints.

The respondents reported difficulty in working during peak summer hours, along with little or no business for vendors because of a drop in footfalls. A majority of the respondents—67% maids and sweepers and 41% hawkers and vendors—reported that there is a loss of two to four hours from their average working hours, while a third reported losses of up to two hours.

Of all the daily wage workers surveyed, 20% of the maids and sweepers, 15% of the hawkers and vendors and 13% of the construction workers faced a monthly income loss between Rs 1,001-2,000. A majority of the construction workers reported losses of up to Rs 1,000, while over half of the hawkers and vendors face loss between Rs 2,001-3,000.

Depending on temperatures, the IMD in its forecasts has recommended avoiding heat exposure; wearing light, loose, cotton clothes; and covering up to safeguard against the sun along with constant hydration.

For agriculture, the IMD advised farmers to provide light irrigation and add mulch material between crops, for conservation of soil moisture and maintaining the soil temperature. This year in mid-February, the early onset of heat waves led to farmers reporting loss in yield along with change in cropping and harvesting patterns.

Extreme heat poses a challenge to health and productivity in India, reducing labour productivity and affecting water availability, agriculture, and energy systems. Multiple cities, districts and states have come up with Heat Action Plans to limit the impact of heat waves.

In December last year, Union Minister Jitendra Singh had informed in the Lok Sabha that the National Disaster Management Authority and India Meteorological Department are working with 23 states to develop Heat Action Plans.

HAPs are comprehensive early warning system and preparedness plans for extreme heat events. They help direct scarce healthcare, financial, information, and infrastructural resources to those most vulnerable to extreme heat in that jurisdiction.

Aditya Valiathan Pillai and Tamanna Dalal at the Centre for Policy Research, assessed 37 HAPs published between 2016 and 2022.

The solutions covered by these HAPs are typically divided into pre, during, and post-season interventions. According to findings by Dalal and Pillai, around a third of all infrastructure solutions were focused on emergency measures to reduce heat stress, by ensuring the availability of water, setting up shelters or cooling centres and ensuring electricity supply.

This set of solutions also contained interventions that promote long-term change in built environments, such as using vernacular building materials, cool roofs, rainwater harvesting and healthcare infrastructure.

These solutions will likely be challenged by growing space constraints in densifying cities, inadequate finance and the challenge of public acceptability as they are scaled up, they said.

There is a strong and welcome focus on planting new or restoring existing green cover through plantation drives or afforestation activities, which have clear policy convergences.

Most HAPs are not built for local context and have an oversimplified view of the hazard, according to their analysis. Only 10 out of 37 HAPs reviewed seem to establish locally-defined temperature thresholds, their analysis found.

Nearly all HAPs are poor at identifying and targeting vulnerable groups, they found, along with being underfunded and insufficiently transparent.

There is need to create a centralised national repository of HAPs and their updates, along with monitoring and evaluating effectiveness of HAP solutions, according to Pillai and Dalal. Apart from clarifying funding mechanisms, there is need to clarify legal foundations of all HAPs by linking individual actions to existing sectoral laws, they said.

A report by the Ministry of Earth Sciences states that the frequency of summer (April–June) heat waves in India is projected to be three to four times higher by the end of the 21st century under the RCP8.5 scenario, as compared with the 1976–2005 baseline period. The average duration of heat wave events is also projected to approximately double, but with a substantial spread among models.

The RCP8.5 high emissions scenario is frequently referred to as “business as usual” scenario, suggesting that it is a likely outcome if society does not make concerted efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

In response to the combined rise in surface temperature and humidity, amplification of heat stress is expected across India, particularly over the Indo-Gangetic and Indus river basins, the report said.