VIJAYAWADA: With the weathermen warning that this summer could be the most severe in the history of Andhra Pradesh, the State government is gearing up to meet the challenges. The district administration has already released Rs 1.3 crore for setting up buttermilk and water distribution centres across Krishna. Speaking to TNIE, Krishna district collector B Lakshmikantham said, “We are making all the necessary arrangements across the district in both urban and rural areas. Every day, we are collecting the weather reports and also alerting the mandal headquarters to take precautions. Soon water from Ryves canal will also be released, so that there isn’t be any water shortage. We have instructed all the medical and health centres to keep the stock of medicines and ORS packets ready”.
The temperature in the Vijayawada city and in places across the Krishna district for the past three days has constantly been 39-40 degree Celsius, with the mercury touching 40 degree Celsius on Thursday.
However, the temperature touching the 40 degree Celsius mark at this time of the year is not very unusual for a ‘very hot place’ like Vijayawada. But what is of the gravest concern is that the temperature is expected to rise steadily, following a ‘slight rain’ that is expected to wet the city in the ‘coming two-three days’.
Ramana Murthy, senior scientist at APSDPS said, “The temperatures are yet to increase to pitch high level in Vijayawada. In the coming two-three days there might be a slight rain and from then on the weather will be dry with constant rise in temperatures”. YK Reddy, IMD Hyderabad director, agrees. “Vijayawada is usually a very hot place with lot of humidity. Touching 40 degrees is not a big thing, as it rises even more in a week. We are expecting a short rain this week and from the next week the temperature will shoot up. All the coastal areas will experience severe heatwaves,” he said.
Around 12 mandals in the Krishna district are traditionally prone to experiencing severe heatwave conditions during summers. The district administration has taken special precautions for these mandals, as there would be no exception to the set pattern this summer too. The district officials have allotted Rs 5 lakhs to each mandal, which is prone to experiencing severe heatwave conditions. Apart from this, the district administration has also sanctioned Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 3 lakhs to other mandals, to create awareness among public, during heatwave conditions and also for distribution of buttermilk, water and also to keep a stock of ORS sachets ready.The State government run Automated Weather Stations (AWS), under APSDPS, are working overtime to monitor heatwaves, temperatures etc real time. The existing website of APSDPS would be ready, officials said, in two days, to display the real-time summer updates.
A word on APSDPS
Andhra Pradesh State Development Planning Society. To facilitate data collection APSDPS has installed 1602 Automated Weather Stations (AWS), 93 river gauges, 5 coastal stations and 76 reservoir-level recorders across the state to acquire data on real time basis. The AWS measures 6 weather parameters - rainfall, wind speed, wind direction, atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature at every one hour interval and transmits that in the form of SMS using GSM technology.