India: Heat and sickness march together as climate shifts
Indians are no strangers to scorching summers, but this year’s hottest months – from April to June – felt unbearably hot and agonizingly deadly. Temperatures shot past 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in New Delhi and the northern states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The country faced its worst heat wave in over a decade, with hundreds dying and thousands others having their health severely impacted by extreme weather conditions. Then came the monsoon season and the heat broke. This month, however, torrential rain triggered flood and landslides in India’s north and northeast, killing scores of people and affecting hundreds of thousands. And both heat and flooding are exacerbating an even deadlier problem – the spread of disease. ‘Beyond human tolerance’ In India, experts say, climate change is boosting the spread of malaria, dengue, yellow fever, cholera, and chikungunya, as well as chronic diseases, particularly among the millions of people who already experience poor sanitation, pollution, malnutrition, and a shortage of drinking water. In India’s urban centres ‘temperatures are rising beyond human tolerance, humidity is increasing, and so is the night-time heat’, Sunita Narain, head of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a New Delhi-based public interest research and advocacy organisation, told DW. Recent studies have shown that temperature rising a few degrees above our body heat levels have an array of harmful effects on mental and physical capabilities. Women working in heat-sensitive jobs such as agriculture or construction are at risk for pregnancy-related complications. Narain warns that cholera, a disease thought to be virtually eradicated was now ‘back again with a vengeance’. At the same time, she says there is more to the problem than rising temperatures. “It is not climate change that is bringing cholera. The fact is, it is the mismanagement of the environment,” Narain said. Attributed to other causes Experts warn that heat waves may be deadlier than we realise, as many heat deaths are attributed to other factors on the death certificate. “Most people dying during heat waves are not recorded as connected to the heat. There needs to be a proper formulation of heat action plans for cities and towns,” Dileep Mavalankar, former head of the Indian Institute of Public Health, told DW. “The government needs to implement long-term strategies to minimise vulnerability and inequalities across communities especially when heat waves are getting deadlier with every passing year,” he added. A rise in diseases Climate-sensitive diseases are rising in India, with some of them showing a clear link to the monsoon rainfall and heat. The government is also aware of the link between mortality and heat, and has listed detailed objectives to build up its capacities and prepare India’s medical system to mitigate risks. However, experts trying to plan and ameliorate these issues often face a fundamental problem – a lack of data. “This is the first hurdle that we need to work on if we are to save lives,” climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll from the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology told DW. “Most of the data is not available. Some cities and districts have annual or monthly aggregates, and for a short time, which are insufficient. Hence, it is possible for us to prepare early warning systems that can inform and save lives and livelihoods if data is available. Basically, the health departments do not share the data that they have.” adds Koll. Focus on ‘resilient’ crops Children and the poorest segments of India are believed to be bearing the brunt of health risks associated with changing climate. A recent study showcased by Indian officials explored the association between climate parameters and infectious diseases in a three-year study involving 461 children under 16 in the northern city of Varanasi. The researchers established that climate parameters like temperature, humidity, rainfall, solar radiation, and wind speed were significantly associated with the infectious diseases like gastrointestinal diseases, respiratory diseases, vector-borne diseases, and skin diseases in the children. Chandra Bhushan, head of the Delhi-based International Forum for Environment, Sustainability & Technology, told DW that building resilience of the health infrastructure is crucial to deal with climate extremes. This year, for instance, the Delhi government asked hospitals to initiate a heat-relief action plan and ensure preparedness to deal with Heat Related Incidents (HRIs). In May, there was an increase of between 10% and 15% of heat-related patients coming in OPD and about 10% in the emergency department. “In Delhi, hospitals were asked to quickly setup new cooling wards to deal with patients will heat related illnesses. Many other cities faced similar challenges,” said Bhushan. According to the veteran activist, the impact on nutrition and health due to climate crisis is also now being studied. This is also expected to impact India’s agriculture. “Thus, there is now a greater focus on climate resilient crops and in the latest budget the government has announced to release over a hundred new climate resilient crops.” With climate change extracting a heavy toll on people’s health, the researcher says India will have to ‘adapt and invest’ to boost its resilient health infrastructure.
