The Chennai summer and our field workers

Does Chennai have a heat action plan? Is it being followed? Are standard operating procedures being tweaked to deal with increasing temperatures at work sites?

Past noon, conservancy worker Annamalai has pulled up his battery-operated vehicle parallel to garbage bins at a garbage transfer point in Kalakshetra Colony near S2 Cinemas. He is emptying the contents of the smaller bins in the vehicle into the lager ones on the road.

Occasionally, Annamalai take the sleeve of his shirt to his brow to wipe the sweat off it. He has been on the field since 7 a.m. and has himself hydrated. The conservancy worker with Urbaser Sumeet looks forward to the buttermilk given at the end of the shift - a small but important gesture by the waste management company to help its workers beat the scorching heat.

Last month, Chennai Traffic Police resumed its annual practice of providing buttermilk and pith hats to its personnels on the ground.

Recently, the Directorate of Public Health and Preventive Medicine released an advisory to prepare for the season. It also instructed health officers to report heat-related illness on an integrated health information platform — National Programme on Climate Change and Human Health portal.

Advocate M. Vetri Selvan of Poovulagin Nanbargal says the State Government must instruct departments to work with a sense of urgency. The environment organisation has presented a list of demands in the context of fighting heatwave-related climate change.

To top that list is a move to draw up guidelines for a heat action plan. It reads: “The Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission has submitted a report to Chief Minister M.K. Stalin regarding heat mitigation measures to be implemented by government departments. This report should be published immediately for public viewing, with comments to be considered and actions implemented.”

A heat action plan aims to increase preparedness and lower the adverse impacts of extreme heat by outlining strategies and measures to prepare and recover from heatwaves.