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full screenStrandbrynet is one of the few places to cool off. Stock image from Chattogram in Bangladesh. Photo: Aijaz Rahi/AP/TT
Schools in Bangladesh barely had time to open before they were closed again. The ongoing heat wave in the country is too dangerous, according to the authorities.
Temperatures above 40 degrees have been recorded around the country throughout April. Kazi Jebunissa, a meteorologist at the weather agency BMD, says the heat is breaking all records.
– We have kept statistics since 1948. No heat wave has lasted this long, she tells the EFE news agency.
The schools in the country, which with 170 million inhabitants corresponds to more than a third of the EU, were closed a week ago. On Sunday they opened again, but it didn’t go well:
– We received reports that about 30 students fell ill, just in one district last Sunday, says Meherunnisa Jhumur of the organization Foundation for Disaster Forum.
– And two teachers died of heat stroke, although not while they were teaching.
The critical situation prompted a court to make a new urgent decision on Monday; the schools are closed again, at least for the rest of the week.
The UN’s weather and climate agency WMO recently warned that Asia is being hit particularly hard by the climate changes caused by man’s dependence on fossil fuels. In the last few days alone, brutal heat is reported to have claimed many lives in Thailand and the Philippines, among others.