Climate Crisis: Greenhouse gas emissions rise in Gujarat; Ahmedabad 'feeling the heat'

Climate change is going to have a serious impact on the urban areas, hot days will increase, while rainfall will amplify in Gujarat. To address these issues, municipal corporations need to increase forestation in cities like Ahmedabad, Rajkot, and Surat, while chemical usage also needs to be controlled, according to a report.

The Gujarat government in association with Vasudha Foundation and other agencies has prepared a climate change action plan for Ahmedabad and Rajkot districts, as per the report released earlier this year.

The main author of the action plan report, Rini Dutt, and others have noted that due to the impact of climate change, rainfall is likely to increase by 8 to 17 percent in Ahmedabad, and by 10 to 12 percent in Rajkot. There will be more rainy days in July and August in Ahmedabad and Rajkot.

Both cities will be hotter in the coming years, according to the study. Warm days have gone up by 10 percent in recent years in Rajkot and by 8 to 10 percent in Ahmedabad.

Dutt and Manjusha Mukherjee's forecast is that warm days will increase by 45 percent in Ahmedabad and by 53 percent in Rajkot in the coming years. Cold days will decrease in both cities.

As many as 84 percent of the population in Ahmedabad district is living in urban areas, which is 4 percent of the state. Because of this, there is a drastic jump in the built up area, from 140 sq km in 1990 to 212 sq km in 2017. The sprawling urban area is eating agriculture and forest land.

Because of climate change, rainy days in Ahmedabad will increase in July and August, while summer is going to be hotter. In 2030, the maximum temperature is likely to be 41.8-degree C in May, 40.2-degree C in April, and 36.8-degree C in March, on average.

Ahmedabad district has a 1.62 percent forest area and experts have recommended that the district needs to increase its forest cover to 7 percent over the next decade, which will help avoid carbon emissions to the tune of 8.47 million tonnes.

To meet the climate challenges, the district administrations and municipal corporations in Ahmedabad/Rajkot need to reuse 100 percent of domestic wastewater after proper treatment in urban as well as rural areas.

Experts have suggested changing the water treatment methodology from anaerobic to only aerobics Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs).

The report also suggested moving towards vertical urban growth, as it will accommodate more people per sq mt, and at the same time avert the loss of agricultural land and open space. (KB/IANS)