OBangladesh High Court judges have approved an order to close “all primary and secondary schools and madrasas until Thursday due to the heat wave”, announced Deputy Attorney General Sheikh Saifuzzaman.
The extreme heat that has hit several countries in Southeast Asia, with temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius, last week caused the death of more than 30 people with symptoms of heatstroke.
The Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) issued a 72-hour red heat alert in the country last Monday and warned that the situation was unlikely to improve this month.
Generally, April is the hottest month in this Asian country, but this year, “the heat is being felt intensely, as there are no signs of rain”, said BMD meteorologist Tarikul Newaz, quoted by Spanish news agency EFE .
On April 20, Bangladesh recorded the highest temperature of the year, 42.6 degrees Celsius, in the Chuadanga district, in the northwest of the country, a value experts associate with a “very severe” heat wave.
Dhaka, with a maximum of 40.6°C this year, recorded the highest temperature in 58 years, with the streets of the country’s capital being practically deserted due to the intensity of the sun.
During the past week, schools were closed, while most public universities opted for ‘online’ classes.
Millions of people face extreme heat in slums without access to adequate water and electricity in Bangladesh’s capital and other cities across the country.
The typical heat of these dates in the area, worsened in recent years by the climate crisis, is joined by the ‘El Niño’ phenomenon, which brings higher temperatures and a drier climate.
In October 2023, the UN and the Red Cross indicated, in a joint report, that heat waves will be more frequent, intense and deadly in the future due to climate change, and may even “exceed human, psychological and social limits” in regions such as the Sahel, the Horn of Africa or South Asia.
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