Severe heatwave conditionsmost likely in 2019: NDMA

Nagpur: Climate change is driving temperatures higher and also increasing the frequency and severity of heatwaves in recent years. Nagpur, which experiences severe heatwaves every year during summer, is likely to witness increased instances of heatwave this year too, predicted experts at a national workshop on heatwave risk reduction that began in the city on Wednesday.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is conducting this two-day workshop for the first time in the city. Aim of this workshop is to sensitize heatwave-prone states to the need of preparing and implementing specific heat action plans.

Dr V Thuruppugazh, joint secretary of NDMA, said that efforts taken by the authority have reduced deaths due to heatwave from 2000 in 2015 to mere 25 in 2018.

“In 2005, there were 15 heatwave vulnerable states in India. This number has grown to 19 by 2018. At NDMA, we have prepared specific guidelines of heatwave. Due to regular follow-up and monitoring by NDMA, and awareness generation campaigns, we have significantly brought down the number of heat-related deaths in the past few years. Our target is no one should die due to heatwave in 2019,” he said.

NDMA had earlier organized two preparedness workshops in 2017 and 2018 in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, respectively. For a full-fledged workshop to discuss long term solutions on heatwave effects, the authority has selected Nagpur as location this year.

“We have been preparing and implementing specific heat action plans for central India. Simple measures like ensuring availability of drinking water, ORH can achieve major changes,” he said. The NMC has prepared heatwave action plan for the city which was presented during the inaugural part of the workshop.

Experts from NDMA, IMD, VNIT and IITM discussed mid and tong term mitigation measures to identify new islands of heatwave and to find local solutions for local problems. Representatives from Bihar, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Delhi and Maharashtra shared their experiences and practices in mitigating the impact of heatwaves.