Visakhapatnam: With temperatures touching the 40ºC mark in March, the government is urged to draft an action plan to prevent heat-related deaths during summer.
In 2015, Andhra Pradesh bore the brunt of the scorching heat wave with 1,369 deaths, the highest in the country.
The state government, in December 2015, had constituted a committee to prepare a “Comprehensive Heat Wave Action Plan”. But there was no official information as to when it would submit its report.
The Met department has warned that the maximum temperatures could touch 49ºC in parts of the state this year. Mostly elders, the homeless and labourers are victims of the high temperatures.
Other than resorting to public advertisements asking people not to go out in the sun and to drink sufficient water, the government has not taken preventive measures like setting up shelters for the homeless, offering potable water at all important junctions or conducting medical camps.
Speaking to DC, Andhra University emeritus professor from the department of Meteorology and Oceano-graphy, Prof. O.S.R.U. Bhanu Kumar, said in the absence of clouds, more heat was reaching the earth’s surface, manifesting in higher temperatures.
“In the past decade, the mercury levels have been climbing steadily. The concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide from 280 ppm in 1950 has now reached 403 ppm,” Prof. Kumar said.
Heat wave no natural calamity
Despite heat waves claiming thousands of lives every year, it is not on the list of natural calamities.
Various NGOs and political outfits have been asking the government to include it in the list which would make the kin of the victims eligible for ex-gratia.
Mr Marri Shasidhar Reddy, when he was vice-chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), mooted the idea of including heat wave in the list. But there was no action.
