Sri Lanka is among a small group of South Asian countries where outdoor work is already deemed too dangerous for people to safely endure for an average of six hours a day, due to extreme heat levels, according to a new World Bank report.
Other countries in this category include India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
The findings are part of the World Bank’s recently published book, From Risk to Resilience: Helping People and Firms Adapt in South Asia, which warns that, without urgent action, this unsafe exposure to high temperatures could increase to eight or nine hours per day by 2050.
The report underscores that South Asia is witnessing a sharp rise in extreme weather events, with nearly 90% of the population expected to be exposed to intense heat and more than one in five people at risk of severe flooding by 2030.
Citing data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative, the report ranks South Asia as the most vulnerable region among emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), with the highest frequency of floods and extreme temperature events recorded over the past two decades.
On average, 67 million people in South Asia have been affected by natural disasters each year since 2015. While flood-related deaths have declined in recent years, the number of fatalities due to extreme heat has risen, the report notes.
The World Bank warns that with public sector budgets under pressure, much of the burden of adapting to these climatic challenges will fall on the private sector. The report outlines a series of policy reforms aimed at enabling both households and businesses to become more resilient to increasingly frequent and damaging weather events.
A major concern highlighted in the report is the impact of climate change on agriculture. The sector faces substantial risks, including rising temperatures, water scarcity, erratic rainfall patterns, and extreme weather events such as droughts and floods—posing a serious threat to food security and rural livelihoods across the region.
Source – dailymirror.lk
