Assam Coordination Committee of AIPSN submits draft heat action plan to state govt

Guwahati, March 14: To help the State's people survive the adverse impacts of the climate change phenomenon extremely thawing out atmospheric temperature, the Assam Coordination Committee of the All India People's Science Network (AIPSN) has submitted a draft 'Heat Action Plan for Assam' (HAPA) to the State Government recently.

Established in February 1988, AIPSN is a network of about 40 people's science organizations spread over the length and breadth of the country. In Assam, its coordination committee has three constituents-Ellora Vigyan Mancha (EVM), Gyan Vigyan Samity (GVS), Assam and Centre of Medical and Sales Representatives' Union (CRU), NER. The coordination committee has been offering support to the State government in properly implementing the State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC)-2. It has also been supporting the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) in timely implementing the State Disaster Management Plan (SDMP).

In India, 23 States have so far adopted their individual HAP. In States like Odisha, Maharashtra and Gujarat, even district-level HAPs are there. However, in Assam, the extreme heatwave is yet to be recognized as a disaster, and, hence, the State has not yet got its own HAP.

The AIPSN Coordination Committee said in a statement that it is for a comprehensive HAP of the State for adaptation and mitigation of such events, with early warning systems to alleviate the impacts of extreme hot weather events. The Coordination Committee has prepared the draft HAP with inputs from experts, resource persons and activists of the people's science movement. It is prepared with the aim of supplementing the efforts of the ASDMA to come out with a comprehensive HAP, the Coordination Committee said.

The Coordination Committee's draft HAP has underlined the need to go for immediate and long-term actions for better preparedness, information sharing and coordinating response to reduce the impacts of extreme hot weather conditions on the health of vulnerable people and animals.

It has suggested the determination of heatwave data at disaggregated scales at the levels of state, districts, cities, etc., and to operate the HAP in the six domains of information dissemination, behavioural actions, infrastructural actions, nature-based actions, institutional capacity building and technological actions, keeping maximum temperature as the key hazard parameter for planning.

It has highlighted the importance of developing a fiscal system that will allow casual workers to remain indoors during the heatwaves with income security.

One of the key strategies it has suggested is undertaking special efforts to reach vulnerable populations through inter-personal communication between March and June every year. An early warning system and inter-agency coordination to alert residents of extreme temperature zones is also important, while capacity building among the healthcare professionals to recognise and respond to heat-related illnesses during extreme heat events is also crucial, it said.

For reducing heat exposure, adaptive measures may be promoted by launching new efforts, including a draft city or area-wide 'cool roofs programme' (CRP), besides setting up cooling centres and shaded spaces in public areas, construction of green-shaded walkways and promoting urban forestry with suitable trees for urban areas in accordance with the forestry guidelines, among others, it said.

The Coordination Committee is also urging the State Government to recognise river erosion and draught as disasters, together with the new threat of heatwaves, for the past about one year.

- By Ajit Patowary