New Delhi: A 40-year-old man from Bihar's Darbhanga died at Delhi's Ram Manohar Lohia hospital yesterday after he suffered a heatstroke during the record-breaking heatwave in the national capital. The man was admitted to the hospital late Monday night.
A doctor who attended to him said he was living in a room with no cooler or fan and had high fever. The body temperature, the doctor said, crossed the 107 degrees Fahrenheit mark -- nearly 10 degrees above normal. This is the first heat-stroke death reported in Delhi this summer.
The national capital has been living its summer nightmare with record-breaking temperatures, all-time high power demand and a crippling water crisis. The Mungeshpur weather station on the city's outskirts recorded a reading of 52.9 degrees Celsius -- the highest-ever for any station in the country. The weather office is now investigating if the Mungeshpur station's record reading was due to a sensor error or local factors.
M Mohapatra, director general of India Meteorological Department, has said that of the 20 monitoring stations in Delhi, 14 recorded a drop in temperature yesterday and the average across the city was in the 45-50 degrees Celsius range. He said the Mungeshpur station is an "outlier", and the recording needs to be confirmed.
Regardless of the numbers and records, residents of the capital are reeling under a severe heatwave for the past week. To add to the heat, several parts of Delhi are suffering due to a drinking water crisis. The Aam Aadmi Party government has accused the Haryana government of denying Delhi its share of Yamuna water. Areas such as Geeta Colony and some parts of Chanakyapuri are receiving limited water supply through tankers.
Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed people surrounding a water tanker and jostling with each other to collect their daily supply.
"The tanker comes daily, but we are getting half a tanker here for 3,000-4,000 people. It is so hot, we need water, but we are not getting enough of it," a local resident Vinay said, alleging that local representatives are not listening to them.
In a video shared by news agency IANS, some residents of Sangam Vihar alleged that they have to pay around Rs 1,000 to 1,250 rupees to fill a small tank from the tanker. Another video showed people chasing a water tanker and climbing on it to draw water in Chanakyapuri.
The Delhi government has now appealed to residents to use drinking judiciously. As many as 200 teams have been formed to identity and check water wastage cases. Activities such as washing cars with hose pipe, overflowing water tanks and use of drinking water for commercial purposes will attract a Rs 2,000 fine.
As people stay indoors and air-conditioners run overtime, Delhi's power demand has reached an all-time high of 8,302 MW yesterday. According to discom officials, this was the 12th day in a row when Delhi's power demand crossed the 7000-MW mark. A BSES spokesperson said BRPL and BYPL discoms successfully met the city's power demand yesterday.