Heat action plan: Lessons from Ahmedabad
The Hindu
How Ahmedabad in Gujarat beats the heat every summer. Its heat action plan is 11 years old and still reviewed every year to get the best inputs. National Disaster Management Authority has asked more than 20 states to take leassons from Ahmedabad
The Heat Action Plan (HAP) Ahmedabad received 11 years ago is now “frayed” around the edges from continual studying. The Plan has gained something of a benchmark status.
Ahmedabad began to consider having a plan in 2010 when it witnessed more than 4,000 heatwave-related deaths. With various stakeholders on board, the municipal corporation brought out the HAP in 2013. The guidelines are revisited every year, and so the first plan has spawned others, some of which are counted as a plan by themselves. Six HAPs are in the public domain, each the result of tweaks carried out in response to changing urban and environmental conditions.
“Every year, starting from February, we review what worked and what did not. Not everything gets done as per plan because of various reasons, but we make sure knowledge gained from new sources is incorporated in the next year’s plan,” says Dr. Dileep Mavalankar, former director, Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar.
The Institute, Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC) and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation were key players in building a heat resilience plan.
Since 2015, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has notified more than 17 heatwave-prone states to develop heat protection plans similar to the one in Ahmedabad.
How effective are HAPs?
Dileep Mavalankar remarks that a successful HAP is one that is participatory, involving both civil society and NGOs. “A HAP would not be effective if it lacks a dedicated person to run its programmes and a budget to do so,” says Dileep.