How Pakistan and India can prevent future heat wave fatalities

An Indian man cools off in the heat in Hyderabad, India on May 24, 2015.

The 1.4 billion people of India and Pakistan are no strangers to long periods of sizzlingly hot and humid weather at this time of year. The average daily high temperature in Delhi in the month of May is 105 degrees Fahrenheit.

But with nearly 3,000 people killed between the two countries in two distinct heat wave events during May and June, it has become clear to local populations that their governments failed to prepare for and respond to the heat waves. It has also become clear that something must be done, as climate change is increasing the likelihood of severe heat waves around the world.

According to a recently published report in British medical journal, The Lancet, the trend toward more extreme weather, combined with the global trend toward urbanization, means the number of people who are exposed to higher temperatures will increase. The report went as far as calling climate change a “public health emergency.”

In Pakistan, where the death toll has now surpassed 1,000, protesters directed their anger at the government for failing to adequately prepare for and respond to the heat wave, including by operating electricity grids that have long been prone to daily failures, thereby shutting off cooling fans and air conditioners.

In addition, many people in the port city of Karachi, which is the most populous city in the country and was the epicenter of the heat wave, lack running water or had water cut off whenever the power went out.

Similarly in India, where 1,700 people have died from a heat wave last month, people have publicly protested against the government for the lack of a reliable power supply. Some protests turned violent, as was the case earlier in June in Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, where protesters set fire to a power station and held power company officials hostage for several hours.

Pakistani volunteers arrange the lifeless bodies of heatstroke victims at a morgue in Karachi, Pakistan, in mid-June 2015.

Blaming the intermittent power grid

Yet, in India at least, more reliable electricity may not have significantly reduced the death toll.

“[The people who died] are migrants, they are people who do not have coping capacities, people who can’t afford air conditioners, these are the ones who suffer the most,” said Rajita Kurup, Oxfam India’s food and climate change program coordinator, in an interview with Mashable.

The high number of deaths signaled a lack of preparedness, according to Anjali Jaiswal, the director of the India program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group. Many heat-related deaths are preventable and there are easy prevention methods, Jaiswal says.

“It has been a huge wake up call” for both countries, she said.

It may seem especially challenging for governments of developing countries to address problems brought about by climate change as they lack the economic resources that developed countries have.

For example, when a heat wave killed hundreds in Chicago in 1995, the city responded by developing a heat wave emergency response plan, launching a green roofs initiative to reduce the urban heat island effect that keeps cities warmer than surrounding areas, and many other actions that required significant investments.

Local solutions

Kim Knowlton, who is a senior scientist at NRDC specializing in climate change and public health, said the solutions can actually be quite achievable.

“The challenges of heat are global, but the solutions are really local,” she told Mashable.

One local government in India has already taken steps to be prepared for extended heat waves. Leaders in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the north Indian state of Gujarat, worked with Knowlton and Jaiswal to develop and implement a heat action plan two years ago. This followed a 2010 heat wave that led to 1,344 excess deaths in the city alone.

The plan consists of four pillars: educating the public about heat-related illnesses and preventative measures, initiating an early-warning system for the public, local governments and local medical officers.

In addition, the city has been training medical staff and promoting adaptive measures for groups to implement.

“You don’t necessarily need a complicated solution,” Jaiswal said. She pointed to Sherdaben General Hospital in Ahmedabad, a hospital which serves a slum community, as an example where a low-tech, low-cost solution saved many lives.

The hospital had a black tar roof, which increased the building’s temperatures. Further, the neonatal ward was on the highest floor, meaning that many mothers and their newborns were put at greater risk of heat-related illnesses.

The solution? The hospital installed a white roof, which lowered the internal temperature of the building significantly, and the staff also moved the neonatal ward to a lower floor.

Though poorer cities may be lacking in economic power, “[they] can also have great success in having strong leadership and strong local communities, social networks and groups that are great at reaching people quickly,” Knowlton says.

People jumping into a canal in Lahore, Pakistan to cool off during a June heat wave. June 10, 2015

While the national governments of India and Pakistan may not have been prepared for the most recent heat wave, Knowlton said that many local governments are starting to develop their own heat action plans.

Jaiswal said her colleagues in Pakistan have reached out to her recently about the elements of an action plan that would help cities in Pakistan prepare for future situations like this.

Climate change means that places across the world, not just in South Asia, are experiencing more intense heat waves and other extreme weather events. Heat waves and other extreme weather events tend to disproportionately affect already vulnerable and minority populations such as day laborers, women, the elderly and children.

As disturbing as it is to read about the number of lives lost in South Asia, Knowlton says, it is also an “immense opportunity we have now to protect people’s health from climate change.”