Heat Waves Catapult In Vizag, People And Business Suffering From Summer

Summer at its peak Vizag

Vizagites have started witnessing the effects of global warming. Heat waves have triggered temperatures as high as 40˚C and needless to say, we haven’t witnessed such intensity for many years. The climatic conditions are so harsh, even the nights seem sweltering. Streets and main roads are left abandoned from mid morning to early evenings, with people staying indoors as considering to even go out is implausible.

While the city did witness drizzle for a moment, things didn’t change much. April and May months saw nearly 1600 being treated for various heat related issues at various Primary and Community health care centers, including KGH. Among patients, the common issues were dehydration and viral infections. Luckily none so far have demised due to sun stroke. Though sun stroke deaths were negligible as per reports from L Kalyan Prasad (District nodal officer for Swine flu), the numbers for suspected sun stroke went high compared to last year.

No wonder fruit juice and sugar cane stalls remain crowded these days with at least one dotting every junction. Some have stalls while others rely on trees for shade. Things have gotten extreme at some major juice centers in MVP Colony, NAD and TSR complex that went packed with public.

Despite having an excellent business, these juice outlet owners have a totally different story. A vendor at TSR complex reportedly complained on workers being inconsistent with tasks due to the soaring climate. Even though the rush for juice stalls have remained steady, many workers are not able to provide proper support.

Conditions for people working in restaurants and food joints look no different since they too have opted staying indoors. This further affected customer service which led to waiting periods of 20 minutes with customers being convinced for lack of timely support, shares a Ram Nagar based food joint worker.

All in all, global warming has taken a toll and a need for heavy plantation is really needed to enhance living conditions in near future.