Hyderabad: The provision of drinking water in buses, a water bell every hour in educational institutions, shelters for daily wage MGNREGA workers, mandal-wise heat impact mitigation plans for agriculture workers, and sending bulk SMS alerts on the coming hot conditions.These are among a slew of recommendations for government departments and agencies, along with some extremely detailed district-wise instructions, in the ‘Heatwave Action Plan 2025’ prepared by the revenue (disaster management) department to prepare the administration and help people cope with the severe heat predicted till June.The state government has declared heatwave days — in its April 15 orders — as a ‘state specific disaster’ resulting in enhancement of ex gratia to families of those who may succumb to heat strokes from Rs 50,000 to Rs 4 lakh.“The heatwave action plan has been designed to ensure individual district administrations take ownership of all heatwave-related actions in coordination with several departments. The idea was to help district collectors focus on the required responses,” Arvind Kumar, disaster management special chief secretary, told Deccan Chronicle.Preparing the report has also provided insights into particularly vulnerable services, especially the 31,897 main anwanwadi centres and 4,076 mini anganwadi centres identified as vulnerable to heatwaves.The 361-page document that includes detailed district level action plans, including the names of ASHA workers in each habitation as in the case of Medak district, and department-wise responsibilities, has been appreciated by the Centre as well as the World Bank.Last year’s data shows that Nalgonda district had the maximum heatwave days of 81, followed by Suryapet with 54, the highest for any given year in the last 11 years since formation of Telangana. Data from the last decade also show that the number of heatwave days may be rising.In 2024, Mancherial, Peddapalli, and Jagtial districts had 34, 33, and 28 days of heatwave respectively, while Kumuram Bheem-Asifabad, and Jogulamba-Gadwal had 16 days each, Nagarkurnool 24 and Karimnagar 18 days. Nineteen other districts had less than 15 heatwave days, and five —Adilabad, Rajanna-Sircilla, Hyderabad, Medak and Hanmakonda — did not have any heatwave days last year.
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