A heat wave and the power cuts it is causing are overwhelming northern India’s hospitals with heat-related illnesses and deaths.
In northern India this week, the average high temperature has been over 110F, with some days getting as high as 113F. Normally the coolest region in India, summer there normally caps out around 104F, and the residents are really feeling the difference.
The Ballia district in Uttar Pradesh includes over 500 villages and more than 3 million residents, but just one single major hospital. Their morgue is over-full after 54 people, all elderly and already infirm, died during the heat wave. Families have been asked to take the bodies of their loved ones home to make room for more.
“We have been issuing heat wave warnings for the past few days,” said Atul Kumar Singh, a scientist at the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD). But the government did not pass those warnings on to the people until Sunday, when the death toll became noticeable.
Adding to the problem are constant power outages across Uttar Pradesh, leaving millions of people without running water, fans, or air conditioners.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the government was taking measures to ensure an uninterrupted power supply. He urged citizens to cooperate and use electricity judiciously.
“Every village and every city should receive adequate power supply during this scorching heat. If any faults occur, they should be promptly addressed,” he said Friday night in a statement.
The Ballia District hospital has also been struck by the power outages, and while they have essential services running on backup generators, air conditioners are not among them. Staff and families are fanning patients with books and clothes to keep them as cool as they can.
According to climate experts, heat waves like this one are 30 times more likely in the contemporary, human-influenced climate than they have been any time in humanity’s past.