Bangladesh has faced extreme heat and severe heat wave this year. Not only Bangladesh, various countries are witnessing hot and dry summer due to climate change, indiscriminate urbanization, dark surface and lack of greenery etc. Scientists and environmentalists have been repeatedly warning of scorching heat accompanied by scorching heat.
Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka experienced its hottest day in 58 years on April 15, when the mercury soared to 40.4 degrees. People across the country are suffering from the scorching heat during April and May. The soil became dry while the temperature continued to rise. Though the heat subsided a bit after Cyclone Mocha made landfall, heat waves are still predicted. Heat waves and extreme temperatures have been making headlines over the past few days for several reasons.
This year, for the first time in South Asia, a study was conducted on the threat of extreme hot weather. The study report was published this March in the international scientific journal ‘Sustainable Cities and Societies’. Four researchers, who conducted the study titled ‘Spatiotemporal Changes in Population Exposure to Heat Stress in South Asia’, examined the extent to which South Asians are exposed to heat stress and its temporal and spatial effects.
Shamsuddin Shahid is one of the four researchers on the study. He is an associate professor at the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He has been recognized as one of the 1000 most influential climate scientists in the world in 2021 by Thomson Reuters. He talks about the study, rising temperatures and other details in an interview with Prothom Aloe’s Farzana Liaquat.