Paid leaves, water at bus stops...: How Delhi is bracing for acute heatwave with temperature soaring to 50 degrees

Sweltering heat, brutal sun rays and temperatures hovering around 50 degrees Celsius, are the conditions Delhiites are currently withstanding as the capital city continues to reel under a deadly heatwave.

Amid this, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Wednesday announced that labourers would get paid breaks between 12 noon to 3 pm in view of the intense heatwave.

Meanwhile, the provision of allowing labourers to take 3-hour long breaks, which was implemented on May 20, will continue across all sites till temperatures come down below 40 degrees Celsius.

The LG earlier this month directed the Delhi Development Authority to ensure that labourers working on construction sites have access to safe drinking water and coconut water to ensure they stay hydrated at all times.

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Apart from this, he has directed that earthen pots with drinking water be arranged at bus queue shelters to provide relief to bus passengers, tankers with treated water of STPs should be deployed for sprinkling on the roads, activating water sprinklers installed at high-rise buildings and roads for tackling pollution.

Weather as hot as heat

While extreme weather conditions are not new to the people of Delhi, this year’s heatwave is a bit too hot to handle.

The capital city on Tuesday recorded its highest-ever temperature with the mercury reaching 49.9 degrees Celsius.

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The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) too does not have good news for Delhi as it has predicted similar conditions to continue for two more days.

Meanwhile, Delhi is only a part of the group of North Indian regions that is reeling under a heatwave.

Rajasthan’s Churu, for example, is currently sizzling at 50.5 degrees Celsius while Haryana’s Sirsa came a close second at 50.3 degrees Celsius.

IMD issues red alert

The weather department on Wednesday issued a red alert in several parts of Delhi.

A red alert implies a “very high likelihood” of people developing “heat illness and heat stroke”, and calls for “extreme care” for vulnerable people.

Delhi water crisis

To add more to their woes, residents in Delhi might also be looking at a water crisis. Delhi’s Water Minister Atishi has urged people to use water judiciously and avoid wastage.

“Even today I saw that in many residential areas of South Delhi, water is flowing in the driveways outside people’s houses due to washing of vehicles. My appeal to everyone is that you should not wash vehicles this way. If this public appeal does not work in the next one or two days, it is possible that we may have to impose a challan on excess usage of water," Atishi said during a press conference.

The government has also decided to rationalise the water supply in different parts of Delhi.

“To address the problem of water scarcity, we have taken a slew of measures such as reducing water supply from twice a day to once a day in many areas… The areas which currently get water twice a day, will get once a day now… the water thus saved will be rationed and supplied to the water-deficient areas where supply lasts only 15 to 20 minutes a day," the water minister said.