Already March was the hottest in decades, and now India and Pakistan are hitting in the heat of over 40 degrees.
The heat wave plaguing South Asia seems to continue until at least May. Earlier-than-usual summer heat has raised temperatures to over 40 degrees in many places in India and Pakistan.
March was already record-high, at least in India, and both countries have now had to resort to planned power outages to ensure energy security.
In the Indian capital, Delhi, 43 degrees warm was measured on Friday. According to the authorities, many power plants had only a day’s worth of coal left. The Prime Minister of Delhi has warned that power outages are also threatening hospitals and the city’s metros.
Millions of cities dumped on fire
Conditions in Delhi are further hampered by a fire in a landfill. The waste mountain, about sixty meters high, smoked on Friday for the fourth day.
Among other things, the school near the landfill has had to close due to toxic gases released from the fire. Many of the students are from really poor families, where their parents make a living by looking for stuff to sell in the landfill.
Smoke exacerbates health problems that are hot anyway. For example, in the eastern state of Bihar and western Gujarat, cases of heat stroke have been on the rise in recent days. There are also a lot of sick children in both states.
Long power outages in Pakistan
In Pakistan, March was the hottest in more than 60 years, and this week temperatures have risen to 47 degrees in parts of the country. In the country’s cities, electricity has been cut off for up to eight hours a day this week, while in rural areas electricity has been cut off in half a day in some places.
In Pakistan’s second largest city, Lahore, residents flocked to the banks of the canals.
– Otherwise, this toast will not escape. With it already so hot now, what will it be like later in the summer? said he and his family had left to cool down Abbas Ali news agency for AFP.
The mountainous regions of northern Pakistan, on the other hand, are being advised to prepare for flooding due to the rapid melting of glaciers. According to the country’s Ministry of Climate Change, the melting has created hundreds of glacial lakes in the mountains, about 30 of which are expected to pose a significant flood risk.
According to Indian weather authorities, the heat will continue for at least the next few days, but temperatures will drop with monsoon rains at the latest. The monsoon season is expected to begin in May as early as May.