It’s time for the water festival in Thailand where many celebrate the country’s traditional New Year, splashing each other with pistols and colorful buckets of water, in an often raucous celebration that attracts thousands of people, even though this year the Southeast Asian country records record temperatures that cause concern.
The party, known as Songkran In Thailand, it is a three-day festival that begins on Saturday and informally extends for an entire week, allowing people to travel for family celebrations. The holiday is also celebrated under different names in neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, which, like Thailand, have predominantly Theravada Buddhist populations.
Songkran is immensely popular – this year it is expected to attract more than 500,000 foreign tourists and generate more than 24 billion baht ($655 million) in revenue, according to the state tourism agency. Previous Thai governments have been reluctant to call for reduced fun, even during crises such as drought and the pandemic.
Although the festival originated as a way to pray for a rainy season that helped harvests and included activities such as cleaning Buddha images and washing the hands and feet of elders, Songkran nowadays is often associated with public drunkenness, sexual assault in the guise of revelry and an increase in traffic deaths, noticeable to the point that the long holiday was dubbed the “seven dangerous days”.
The festival usually takes place during the hottest time of the year, when temperatures can exceed 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit).
But this year, the unusual heatwave, with record temperatures expected in the coming months, has sparked concern. The United Nations Children’s Fund warned on Thursday that the sweltering weather could put the lives of millions of children at risk, urging caregivers to take extra precautions.
The UNICEF statement states that in the Asia-Pacific region, “an estimated 243 million children are exposed to hotter and longer heat waves, putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death”.
Heat waves can be lethal as they affect the ability to breathe, making the elderly and young particularly vulnerable.
Benjamin Horton, director of the Singapore Earth Observatory, where natural phenomena such as climate change are studied, said that three factors determine heat waves; El Nino, a natural, temporary and occasional warming of part of the Pacific, a human-induced increase in global temperatures of Climate Change.
The poor are particularly vulnerable to heat waves, which are exacerbated in many countries. Southeast Asia cities where concrete buildings make the weather muggy and few trees provide shade, he said.
Horton added that last year saw record global average temperatures and that heatwaves in Southeast Asia reflected that trend, adding that “it’s only going to get worse.”
The entire Mekong Delta, which includes Vietnam as well as Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, experienced extreme heat, with parts of Laos and Thailand recording temperatures of 5 to 7 degrees Celsius (41 to 44.6 degrees Fahrenheit) more than the average between April 3 and 9, according to the Stimson Center’s Mekong Dam Monitor program in Washington D.C.
This extreme heat also means less water for hydroelectric dams to produce energy.
“Heat waves place significant pressure on energy systems, from increasing energy demand to compromising grid capacity. Hydropower generation is particularly affected” when heat results in drought over several years, according to Dimitri Pescia, director for Southeast Asia at Germany-based thinktank Agora Energiewende.
“The cumulative effects, amplified by climate change, cause great suffering to society and ecosystems,” he said.
Singapore’s Horton said earth-warming carbon emissions need a drastic reduction as people learn to adapt to the new climate, which includes learning the dangers of excessively hot weather, and as authorities mount a response. emergency response to warn people in advance of high temperatures and provide them with areas to cool down when needed.
Last week, the Philippines suspended classes in more than 5,800 public schools and switched to home and online learning to protect millions of students from the scorching heat.
Schools in several cities, including the congested capital Manila, moved classes to early morning to avoid sweltering midday and afternoon temperatures. Additionally, tens of thousands of middle and high school students were allowed to alternate between attending school and online classes every other day, officials said.
Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan, a doctor, said they have limited outdoor activities, especially if the heat index rises to an extreme level. “If people don’t have urgent outdoor errands, the best precaution really is to stay home.”
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Associated Press writers Sopheng Cheang in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report. Asia Business Climate Correspondent Aniruddha Ghosal reported from Hanoi, Vietnam.
