NUS-based hub to build network that can respond to S-E Asia's heat challenges

Action by more than just the healthcare sector needed to tackle the crisis, expert says

- Shabana Begum

A multidisciplinary regional hub based in Singapore aims to help communities across South-east Asia build resilience against rising temperatures.

It plans to grow a network that will involve a wide range of people such as academics and policymakers, as extreme heat in the region is a crisis that the healthcare sector cannot tackle alone.

Instead of relying solely on medical professionals to treat people after they come down with heat illnesses, more can be done upstream to prevent such illnesses in the first place, said Associate Professor Jason Lee, director of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine's Heat Resilience and Performance Centre, on Jan 7.

Every heat death is preventable, and therefore solutions need to be tailored to specific groups, he said.

Unlike other climate impacts, such as tropical cyclones that leave a trail of destruction, heat is a silent killer, Prof Lee noted.

"Heat and humidity are not new to this part of the world. And this is also a key reason why for the longest time we haven't taken serious actions to counter it," he said, comparing local communities' inaction with a frog being slowly boiled alive in a pot of water.

Prof Lee was speaking at the First Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) South-east Asia Heat Health Forum, being held in the Parkroyal on Beach Road from Jan 7 to 10.

The global network is an initiative of three bodies - the World Health Organisation, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - to tackle the heat crisis.

It comprises researchers, humanitarian organisations, policymakers and weather experts.

In December 2023, Prof Lee's centre was designated its South-east Asia hub, the first of three planned regional hubs under the network.

There are plans to form similar hubs in Latin America and South Asia.