It’s water festival time in Thailand, where many people celebrate the country’s traditional New Year, splashing each other with colorful water guns and buckets, an often raucous celebration that attracts thousands of people even though the Southeast Asian country has been hit with record high temperatures this year. anxiety.
The festival, known as Songkran in Thailand, is a three-day party that begins on Saturday and unofficially spans a week, allowing people to travel for family celebrations. The holiday is also celebrated under different names in neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, where, like Thailand, the population is predominantly Theravada Buddhist.
Songkran is extremely popular; It is estimated to attract more than 500,000 foreign tourists this year and generate more than 24 billion baht ($655 million) in revenue, according to the state tourism agency. Past Thai governments have been reluctant to call for reduced entertainment, even during crises such as drought and pandemic.
Although the festival originated as a way to pray for a rainy season that helped crops and included activities such as cleaning images of the Buddha and washing the hands and feet of the elderly, Songkran is nowadays often associated with public drunkenness, sexual assault in the city, and the like. The guise of fun and a sudden increase in traffic fatalities are so remarkable that the extended holiday has been dubbed the “seven dangerous days”.
The festival usually falls during the hottest time of the year, when temperatures can rise above 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
But this year, an unusual heat wave with record temperatures expected for the next few months has triggered concerns. The United Nations Children’s Fund warned on Thursday that sweltering weather could put the lives of millions of children at risk and asked caregivers to take extra precautions.
In its statement, UNICEF stated that “approximately 243 million children in the Asia-Pacific region are exposed to hotter and longer heat waves, putting them at risk of numerous heat-related diseases and even death.”
Heat waves can be fatal as they affect the ability to breathe, making the elderly and young especially vulnerable.
Benjamin Horton, Director of the Singapore Earth Observatory, where natural events such as climate change are examined, said that three factors determine heat waves; El Niño is a natural, temporary, and occasional warming of part of the Pacific, an increase in global temperatures, and human-caused climate change.
The poor are particularly vulnerable to heat waves, which are worsened in Southeast Asian cities where concrete buildings make the air more stifling and few trees provide shade, he said.
Horton noted that global average temperatures last year were at record levels and heat waves in Southeast Asia also reflected this trend, adding that “the situation will only get worse.”
The entire Mekong Delta, which includes Vietnam as well as Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, witnessed extreme temperatures; Parts of Laos and Thailand saw temperatures 5-7 degrees Celsius (41-44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than in previous years. On average, between April 3-9, according to the Mekong Dam Monitoring program of the Stimson Center in Washington, DC.
This extreme heat also means less water for hydroelectric dams to produce energy.
“Heatwaves put significant pressure on power systems, from increased energy demand to reduced grid capacity. Hydropower generation is particularly affected when heat causes drought for several years, according to Dimitri Pescia, Southeast Asia director at German-based think tank Agora Energiewende.
“The cumulative effects, exacerbated by climate change, are causing great distress to society and ecosystems,” he said.
Horton, from Singapore, said world-warming carbon emissions must be drastically reduced as people learn to adapt to the new climate, learn the dangers of extremely hot weather, and authorities mount an emergency response to warn people in advance of high temperatures and give them the necessary precautions. Areas to be cooled when necessary.
Last week, the Philippines suspended classes in more than 5,800 public schools and switched to home-based and online learning to protect millions of students from the scorching heat.
Schools in many cities, including the capital Manila, have shifted classes to early morning hours to avoid sweltering midday and afternoon temperatures. Officials also said tens of thousands of students in elementary and high schools were allowed to alternate between attending school every other day and taking online classes.
Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan, a medical doctor, said they restrict outdoor activities, especially if the heat index rises to extreme levels. “Unless people have urgent business outside, the best precaution is really to stay inside.”
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Associated Press writers Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report. Asian Business Environment reporter Aniruddha Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.