Burning issue: Govt adds financial muscle to heatwave plans for states

NDMA retools heat response strategy amid health warnings

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which has 250 heat action plans for cities, is not only aiming to expand those to the district level but is also planning to incorporate financial mechanisms or mitigation funds into heat action plans to deal with rising heatwaves, said a senior executive on Tuesday.

 

This comes at a time when recent studies indicate a trend of general warming in mean annual temperature over the Indian subcontinent, threatening economic growth and a better quality of life. This assumes significance as the disaster management authority faces challenges in implementing heat action plans on the ground.

 

India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.7 degrees Celsius between 1901 and 2018, and by the end of the 21st century, it is projected to increase further by 4.4 degrees Celsius. This means vast stretches of India are now expected to face prolonged heatwaves lasting 30–40 days or more.

 

“One major problem that has always been flagged is how we implement the heat action plan on the ground. Our heat action plans don't have a financial mechanism, and we have kind of addressed that. We have been working hard to get the mitigation fund to support the heat action plan, and that has been allowed,” Krishna S. Vatsa, member of NDMA, said at the India Heat Summit organised by Climate Trends, a research-based consulting organisation.

 

He added that the NDMA is currently working on the policy guidelines, and those will be issued soon.

 

With this, there will now be financial resources available at the state level, but government resources would not suffice, he said, adding, “There has to be a wider mobilisation of resources from the private sector, non-governmental organisations, local governments, and citizens. So, hopefully within a year or two, we will see many more innovative experiments and interventions happening at the grassroots level, which would reduce the impact of heatwaves.” 

 

Vatsa also highlighted the need to improve our technical backstopping for heatwave preparedness and mitigation in the country.

 

About 57 per cent of Indian districts, home to 76 per cent of the country’s population, are currently at high to very high risk from extreme heat. According to a report, mortality rates because of heatwaves in India have gone up by 62.2 per cent.

 

According to a United Nations report, India reported 40,000 cases of suspected heat strokes and over 100 deaths between March and mid-June last year.

 

Heatwaves are known to be a silent killer among natural disasters triggered by human-caused climate change. The effect of rising temperatures and the increasing frequency, duration, and intensity of hot spells poses a challenge to human safety and sustainability.

 

Bharat Lal, secretary-general of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), at the summit, pointed out seven challenges to mitigating the effects of heatwaves. The list includes the absence of occupational heat exposure data, poor socioeconomic vulnerability mapping, inadequate urban heat island mapping, non-integration of real-time meteorological and health data, and limited use of remote sensing data.

 

Lal informed that the commission had identified 10 solutions to address these challenges and had been working on them for the last three months.

 

“The first is expanding and scaling up this heat action plan. A heat action plan helped to an extent that mortality in Ahmedabad went down by 30–40 per cent. So, it means the heat action plan should be further expanded,” Lal said.

 

Other solutions or opportunities that NHRC is trying to work out include data-driven vulnerability mapping for integrated interventions, investment in passive cooling infrastructure, public awareness and behavioural change campaigns, and integration of operational heat safety and labour laws.