Heat wave in south prompts health concerns

Ram Lakhan has been lying in bed for more than six days after extreme heat in Nepalganj, 600 km west of the capital, caused him to have a stroke.

"I can't work like this. The heat will kill me," said Lakhan, adding that he was worried he may not have enough strength to go back to his job as a labourer at a local construction site.

The government's Department of Meteorology said the temperature in the southern city bordering India had topped 44 degrees Celsius this week, a record high in the country.

A heat wave in Nepal has already affected the livelihoods of a large number of poverty-stricken families who depend on daily wage outdoor labour such as constructing roads, driving rickshaws, selling vegetables, making quilts and farming.

Most of such workers, who are unable to afford transportation, are now also unable to walk to work because of the heat. The usually crowded streets are empty.

"Even at night, it is difficult to bear the heat, and my children have been spending sleepless nights for a long time," said Laxmi Devi, a local resident whose six-year-old daughter suffers from an eye infection due to the heat.

Hospitals may not cope

Local medical workers are concerned that hospitals will not be able to cope with a huge influx of patients suffering from ailments caused by the scorching heat.

"The summer has suddenly become extremely hot, unlike previous years when the temperature gradually rose," said Dr Surendra Pahadi of the Bheri Anchal Hospital, Nepalganj’s largest hospital. He said there had been a significant increase in patients taking up hospital beds with eye infections and stroke.

I can't work like this. The heat will kill me.

In addition, he said there is an increasing number of Japanese encephalitis (JE) cases, a potentially severe viral disease that is spread by infected mosquitoes and the leading cause of childhood encephalitis (an acute inflammation of the brain) in Asia. Cases of diarrhoea are also on the rise, hospital officials said.

Another concern among health workers is the rising number of suicides by people unable to bear the heat and lack of rainfall. Local newspapers report that 26 people have committed suicide this summer because of heat-related issues.

Local farmers have expressed their concern over the lack of rainfall at a time when the monsoon season would usually have started. "The water flow in the wells has also stopped. The wells are drying up now due to the heat," farmer Yambahadur Rawat said. He added that even the ground water supply had dried up already.

Farmers are worried that the severe drought of 2006 might again be repeated, which would badly affect agriculture, a predominant occupation in the Himalayan nation. Farmers say their farms are still recovering from last year’s drought and could not survive another.

"We are very worried that the destruction will recur," said local farmer Shyam Lamichane.

nn/ds/ed