The heat is on

It is going to be a long, hot and dry summer. We should be prepared for the worst

A couple of intense thunderstorms hit north India recently, they brought a lot of show and pomp with electricity filling the sky and killing hundreds as well as severe winds that ripped asunder flight schedules. But they did not bring much in terms of precipitation. It has emerged that this pre-monsoon season has been one of the dryest in history and as May turns into June, northern India is going to be baked in a kiln.

Official temperature charts and the thermometer on some of our cars might differ but the fact is that increasing construction and the resultant concrete, asphalt, steel and glass have made matters worse in most cities. Shameless copying of Western architecture, initially Soviet in the early decades after independence and American style glass-and-concrete skyscrapers in the more recent past has made our cities into massive heat sinks with no space to diffuse the heat. In addition, massive population pressures on our major metropolitan areas, with Delhi and Mumbai’s total metropolitan populations exceeding 25 million has made matters worse. While some meteorological stations in western and central India will record close to 50 degrees centigrade this summer, temperatures in certain parts of Delhi and other northern cities will certainly exceed that mark. State and central governments ought to be prepared for the worst, there will be deaths, likely in the hundreds across the country due to the heat. At the same time, thanks to increasing prosperity, electricity grids will be put under immense pressure thanks to the need for people to keep cool. Ironically, this will make matters worse because much of India’s grid is still driven by polluting thermal power plants.

And in that irony lies the root of the problem. Heatwaves are clearly getting worse in India every successive year. While the annual variations may be slight, those who grew up in the 1980’s and earlier can tell of a palpable rise in temperatures. And there should be no doubt as to the culprit, global warming and India and her relatively poor population is paying the price of the indulgence of the developed world. However, India has little choice but to quickly reform her power supplies, which is being done through massive solar installations across the country; as well as prepare for worse impacts of global warming. It would be impossible to have emergency teams in every heat-afflicted district, but cities like Delhi and others in north India ought to have heat rescue teams at the ready. Water agencies should also go about monitoring usage and punishing wastage, at the same time the population should be encouraged to be more energy efficient by installing more modern cooling devices that consume less power. There is not much that we can do to mitigate the summer of 2018, but our actions today and tomorrow might make following summers easier to bear.