When in May 2010, the temperature of Ahmedabad city touched 470C – and the number of deaths across the city from all causes on a given day – rose from its baseline of around 100 to more than 300 on the hottest day, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) undertook an initiative to develop a comprehensive heat action plan for extreme heat events with support from The Indian Institute of Public Health, Public Health Foundation of India, Natural Resources Defense Council, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Emory University Schools of Medicine and Public Health and others. This was the first step in India to develop such a plan.
Gradually, they have introduced multiple schemes in the city with support from other organisations. Just to present a few examples: on a red alert day, clinics activate heatstroke treatment protocols, ambulances are equipped with ice packs, and construction workers adjust their schedules to cooler hours, and health advice is disseminated widely. Drinking water and buttermilk are distributed to vulnerable populations. At Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel hospital, there is a dedicated heatstroke treatment ward. At an Oxygen Park built with private funding, several techniques have been implemented for rapid urban greening.
I feel proud to note that recently a team of 15 South African officials during their study tour in the city discovered the details of the initiatives taken by AMC and reported the same through a press release of United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Services. The impressive heading of the press release, “On urban heat, India offers lessons to the world,” makes me feel once again that – overcoming all the challenges of a country hosting world’s largest population, we are still doing things that are admirable to the world.
I take this opportunity to heartily congratulate the corporation officials involved in giving shape to the corporation’s plan – and highly appreciate the role of other organisations (including some women’s organisations like Mahila Housing Trust, SEVA) who also relentlessly support the corporation’s mission.
Pravita Iyer
Publisher & Directo
