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Govt to incorporate financial mechanism into states' heat action plans

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which has 250 heat action plans for cities, is not only aiming to expand those to the district level but is also planning to incorporate financial mechanisms or mitigation funds into the plans to deal with rising heatwaves, said a senior official on Tuesday. This comes at a time when recent studies indicate a trend of general warming in mean annual temperatures over the Indian subcontinent, threatening economic growth and quality of life. This assumes significance as the disaster management authority faces challenges in implementing heat action plans on the ground. India's average temperature has risen by around 0.7 degrees Celsius between 1901 and 2018, and by the end of the 21st century, it is projected to increase further by 4.4 degrees Celsius. This means vast stretches of India are now expected to face prolonged heatwaves lasting 30–40 days or more. 'One major problem that has always been flagged is how we implement the heat action plan on the ground. Our heat action plans don't have a financial mechanism, and we have kind of addressed that. We have been working hard to get the mitigation fund to support the heat action plan, and that has been allowed,' Krishna Vatsa, member of NDMA, said at the India Heat Summit organised by Climate Trends, a research-based consulting organisation. He added that NDMA is currently working on policy guidelines and that these will be issued soon. With this, financial resources will now be available at the state level, but government resources would not suffice, he said, adding, 'There has to be a wider mobilisation of resources from the private sector, NGOs, local governments, and citizens. So, hopefully within a year or two, we will see many more innovative experiments and interventions happening at the grassroots level, which would reduce the impact of heatwaves.' Vatsa also highlighted the need to improve technical backstopping for heatwave preparedness and mitigation in the country. About 57 per cent of Indian districts—home to 76 per cent of the country's population—are currently at high to very high risk from extreme heat. According to a report, mortality rates due to heatwaves in India have risen by 62.2 per cent. A UN report stated that India recorded 40,000 suspected cases of heat stroke and over 100 deaths between March and mid-June last year. Heatwaves are known to be a silent killer among natural disasters triggered by human-caused climate change. The effect of rising temperatures and increasing frequency, duration and intensity of hot spells poses a serious challenge to human safety and sustainability. Bharat Lal, Secretary-General of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), at the summit, pointed out seven key challenges in mitigating the effects of heatwaves. These include the absence of occupational heat exposure data, poor socioeconomic vulnerability mapping, inadequate urban heat island mapping, non-integration of real-time meteorological and health data, and limited use of remote sensing data. Lal informed that the commission has identified 10 solutions to address these challenges and has been working on them for the past three months. 'The first is expanding and scaling up the heat action plan. A heat action plan helped to the extent that mortality in Ahmedabad went down by 30 to 40 per cent. So, it means the heat action plan should be further expanded,' Lal said. Other solutions or opportunities that NHRC is working on include data-driven vulnerability mapping for integrated interventions, investment in passive cooling infrastructure, public awareness and behavioural change campaigns, and integration of operational heat safety with labour laws.