Scorching HOT
Dizzying temperatures have caused water shortages in thousands of
Indian villages and killed hundreds more people over the past day,
driving the death toll from a weeks-long heatwave to at least 1,826,
officials have said. Hospitals were urged to give emergency treatment to
people suffering from heatstroke as authorities on Friday cancelled
doctors' leave, set up water distribution points and warned people not
to venture out.
"The main thing is prevention in this situation to ensure that
preventive measures are being taken," said Charan Singh, Additional
Director of Public Health in New Delhi, where top temperatures have hit
45 degrees Celsius. Meteorological officials have called the heatwave
"severe" and warned that it would continue for at least another two days
across a huge swathe of the South Asian country from Tamil Nadu in the
south to the Himalayan foothill state of Himachal Pradesh.
Most of those killed by heat-related conditions including dehydration
and heat stroke have been in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and
Telangana, where 100 people died as temperatures hovered at about 43C.
Thousands of water tankers were delivering supplies to more than
4,000 villages and hamlets facing acute water shortages in the central
state of Maharashtra, state officials told the Press Trust of India(PTI).
"In the capital New Delhi, there are growing concerns on the part of
doctors and health experts that the high temperatures that Delhi is
experiencing along with dust is trapping dangerous toxins in the air,
which could have long-term dangerous consequences for millions of
residents," Al Jazeera's Nidhi Dutt, reporting from New Delhi,
said.Hundreds of mainly poor people die at the height of summer every
year in India, but this year's figures are already nearly double the
annual average.
People across India have been plunging into rivers, staying in the
shade and drinking lots of water to try to beat the heat. Scorched crops
and dying wildlife were reported, with some animals succumbing to
thirst.
Many farmers and construction workers struggling with poverty were
still working outdoors despite the risks, they along with the
impoverished elderly were among the most vulnerable.
"How do we cope up with the heat? We have to raise kids and so we
have to work even though it's hot. Otherwise what will our children
eat?" said 38-year-old bricklayer Sunder in Gurgaon, a satellite town
near New Delhi.
Disaster management officials have said more needs to be done to
alert residents to the risks of staying outside in the heat,
particularly if the heat waves persist.
Cooling monsoon rains were expected next week in the south before
gradually advancing north. However, forecasting service AccuWeather
warned of prolonged drought conditions, with the monsoon likely to be
disrupted by a more active typhoon season over the Pacific. The heatwave
is now the fifth-deadliest in recorded world history and the
second-deadliest in India's history, according to EM-DAT, the
International Disaster Database. (Al Jazeera) |