A Race Against Rising Temperatures: Creating a Cool and Resilient City Infrastructure
People around the world are feeling the heat of climate change, and the data show us why. We just experienced the warmest 12-month period on record, with a quarter of the global population facing persistent and dangerous heat waves driven by carbon pollution. Extreme heat has serious consequences for health, both directly and indirectly. For example, heat exhaustion and heat stroke are common during heat waves. High temperatures also increase demand for water, compounding existing scarcity and creating a shortage of drinking water. This leads to dehydration and increases water-borne diseases, particularly among children, the elderly, and people living in urban poor communities. High temperatures can also cause more frequent respiratory infections in children, and increase foodborne pathogens that cause diarrheal diseases. In addition, extreme heat is associated with increased risk of pregnancy complications such as hypertensive disorders, preterm birth, and low birth weight. The increasing intensity and frequency of heat waves also contribute to global food insecurity by reducing crop yields and income when it is too hot for people to work and crops to survive. This significantly reduces families’ ability to meet nutritional needs as income decreases and food prices increase. Recognizing the largely predictable and preventable nature of this crisis, we look to the leaders, experts, and activists who are attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference — COP 28 to take action on this critical issue.
The increasing effects of climate change are ubiquitous. Over the last year in India, for example, 1.3 billion people endured a minimum of 30 days of elevated temperatures. By the end of this century, the number of heat waves in India each year is projected to triple, and their duration will increase too. City residents, who account for more than one third of India’s population, are at higher risk because of the urban heat island effect. Temperatures in urban areas can be 4–5 degrees Celsius higher than surrounding vegetated areas. As urbanization continues to increase, city governments must develop and implement a comprehensive heat response plan and improve the resilience of infrastructure for residents. Sound urban planning includes short- and long-term measures for adapting to extreme heat and responding to the heat island effect while fulfilling the mission to protect and provide vital health and other services to people.
Case Study: Rajkot, India
Rajkot is an example of how city governments can use a variety of strategies to protect residents from the effects of heat. The city is Gujarat State’s fourth largest and one of its primary commercial and industrial centers. Rajkot, which sits along the country’s western coast, is home to almost 2 million people. In recent years the city has suffered an increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves, with temperatures as high as 45 degrees Celsius in the summer. The Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority classifies Rajkot as vulnerable to hazards like floods, droughts, and heat waves. In 2020, the city government released its Heat Wave Action Plan, which includes vulnerability mapping and measures like building health care professionals’ capacity to mitigate heat-related complications, supporting health centers’ medical preparedness, and updating records to track emergency cases. It also calls for early warning communication and awareness campaigns; running specialized dispensaries during peak summer to shelter and care for people affected by heat; regulating work hours for construction and other outdoor workers; and improving regulations to promote heat-tolerant infrastructure.
“During summer, for those who sell vegetables, they face daily loss as vegetables get rotten due to extreme heat and hence profits are reduced.”
— ARC workshop participant in Rajkot
The city recently received an award for its Atal Sarovar initiative, which combines measures for water management, greenery, and outdoor urban space, including the creation of an ecologically integrated social and recreational waterfront for residents. The Rajkot Municipal Corporation, the city’s governing body, is also creating a green belt by planting 300,000 native trees using methods that imitate natural forest growth. The green belt is next to a landfill, and is intended to reduce dust pollution and the landfill’s carbon footprint.
How JSI and its Affiliates Support this Work
The Rajkot Municipal Corporation recently partnered with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Asia Resilient Cities (ARC) Project to continue building climate resilience amidst rapid urbanization, rising temperatures, and water scarcity. In India, ARC is implemented by JSI and its affiliate JSIPL, and works closely with city governments, residents, and other stakeholders. ARC’s systems thinking approach is effective for addressing complex issues like heat. At the beginning of project activities, ARC and the Rajkot Municipal Corporation co-hosted workshops with a wide range of city stakeholders to document and jointly develop practical, sustainable solutions to the problems they face. Heat emerged as a major theme in these workshops, particularly for urban poor communities with high population density and limited greenery. The discussion delved into the effects on informal workers, who predominantly conduct outdoor manual labor such as construction, street vending, and rickshaw pulling. These workers are highly susceptible to increased temperatures, solar radiation, and air pollution, escalating their risks of heat-related illnesses and injuries. ARC is supporting Rajkot as it builds resiliency into its existing structures, social networks, human resources, economic and governmental processes, and natural resource management. This holistic, systems-level approach aims to improve the availability and quality of services, including health, for all residents in the face of increasing heat.
ARC builds on learning from the Building Healthy Cities project, which supported healthy urban planning in four Asian cities, including Indore, India. In addition, ARC’s implementing partner in India, JSIPL, has expertise in a range of health areas affected by heat and climate change, including immunization, nutrition, and child health. Its work establishes a robust foundation for resilience, helping communities withstand the challenges posed by heat waves and other climate-related dangers. JSIPL’s USAID-funded SAMVEG project supports the locally led Freedom Consortium for Childhood Pneumonia in Jharkhand to address air pollution, which is responsible for more than half of pneumonia deaths in children under the age of five. The consortium takes continuous action through its members, standing as a frontline effort in mitigating the consequences of climate change on vulnerable communities. JSIPL also implements the Tuberculosis Implementation Framework Agreement (TIFA) project in India, providing tuberculosis screening and treatment services to urban homeless and migrants in four cities, and reaching people whose susceptibility to infection is increased due to poor air quality. Within seven months of initiation, the intervention has reached more than 100,000 people.
Climate change is one of the biggest public health challenges in history, and those who contribute to it the least feel its impacts the most. Governments and organizations attending COP 28 must think broadly and creatively while developing and ensuring the enactment of plans to mitigate climate change. JSI and its affiliates are committed to integrating climate and environment considerations into all projects and challenging systemic structures that simultaneously perpetuate inequity, injustice, the climate crisis, and environmental disasters.
By: Lauren Azmon, Program Officer, Asia Resilient Cities Project, JSI
Dr. Sanjay Kapur, Managing Director, JSIPL
