Report flags lack of long-term plans to tackle heat issues

Nine cities that house 11% of India's urban population, including Delhi and Mumbai, either don't have long-term plans to tackle extreme heat or have inadequate strategies that are poorly targeted, said a new report, which added that the absence of effective steps could lead to the number of weather-related deaths snowballing.

- HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI:

The report, by Sustainable Futures Collaborative (SFC)—an independent research organization which analyses issues related to climate change, energy, and the environment, used data to identify cities with populations of over a million that are expected to face the most severe spikes in heat index values. The researchers then identified Bengaluru, Delhi, Faridabad, Gwalior, Kota, Ludhiana, Meerut, Mumbai, and Surat for the analysis.

"Many important long-term actions are entirely absent. These include making household or occupational cooling available to the most heat exposed; developing insurance cover for lost work; expanding fire management services for heat waves; and electricity grid retrofits to improve transmission reliability and distribution safety," the report said.

To be sure, all nine cities reported having short-term emergency measures in place, including access to drinking water, changing work schedules, and boosting hospital capacity before or during a heat wave.