DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis have gathered in Dhaka to pray for rain in the middle of an extreme hot spell that has put health authorities on heatstroke alert.
The weather across the region is usually hot across the region in April before the summer monsoon season, but this year temperatures have been unusually high, reaching 42 degrees Celsius in parts of Bangladesh.
The country has been on alert since last week, as the punishing heatwave has disrupted agriculture, raised the risk of health complications and forced schools to close for 33 million children.
As the Bangladesh Meteorological Department renewed its warning that the heatwave is likely to persist during the weekend — or until a new notice is issued — thousands of people in Dhaka prayed on Wednesday and Thursday for relief.
They gathered in city mosques and rural fields to pray for rain.
“Special prayers for rain have been organized in many parts of Dhaka on Thursday. Thousands of people joined these prayers ... in addition to that, a special prayer for rain, which Muslims around the world have practiced since the days of the Prophet Muhammad, has taken place in many parts across the country,” Motiur Rahman Akand, spokesperson of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest religious political party, which organized the prayers, told Arab News.
“When there is a natural crisis, especially drought, which causes severe suffering for human beings and all other living creatures, people should seek help from the Almighty to get relief from this situation.”
Hospitals were on high alert as at least 20 people died from heatstroke in the past five days alone.
“We have been preparing quite ahead for managing heatwave-related patients ... all the government health facilities are guided not to admit any other patients unless it’s an emergency,” Dr. Moinul Ahsan, director of the hospital wing of the Directorate General of Health Services, told Arab News.
“We are on alert and monitoring the situation closely. Working-class people are suffering most amid this heatwave ... children, pregnant women and the elderly are also most vulnerable in this situation.”
Bangladesh’s geography and low-lying delta topography make it particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change, and for the past two decades, the country has launched various environmental schemes to mitigate the worsening situation.
Ranking among the 10 countries most prone to climate devastation, Bangladesh has been recognized as a global leader in adaptation and resilience, and in 2005 was one of the first least-developed countries to launch a national adaptation program of action.
A report released in February by the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, a leading research institute in Dhaka, warned that Bangladesh is reaching the limit of its ability to adapt to extreme weather.
