Heatwave preparedness should be a 365-day effort

With Tamil Nadu notifying heatwave as a state disaster, climatologists on what should be its next focus; also the challenge of tracking heatwave death data

Recently, the Tamil Nadu government made a gazette notification that heatwave is a state disaster, clubbing it with 13 other eventualities such as deaths caused by electrocution, thunderstorm and lighting, floods and snakebite. Families of victims including relief workers who died due to heatwave, would be eligible for an ex-gratia of ₹ 4 lakh.

These are significant steps as greater onus is now on the State Government to take various measures to reduce heatwave-related causalities in the State (remember, heatwaves are not yet notified as a disaster at the national level under the existing disaster relief policies).

Anup Kumar Srivastava, former senior consultant, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), says prevention, preparedness, mitigation, monitoring and relief, in that order, are the main pillars of any disaster management.

“The next step for the Government is to start working on building capacity, which must be a continuous and ongoing process,” says Srivastava.

Healthcare professionals and administrative staff must be trained on how to detect signs and symptoms of heatwave among patients and the public. He says a good heatwave action plan must have nodal officers in every district who will be responsible for driving initiatives and monitoring them.

While most notifications insists on providing ORS packets, setting up drinking water kiosks at public places and rescheduling working hours to protect outdoor workers, governments must look beyond the basics.

“Compensation for agriculture loss and death of livestock must also be included,” says Srivastava.