The region has undergone an exceptional heat wave since the beginning of March by its precocity and its duration; 49.2 ° C were recorded in New Delhi, 51 ° C in Pakistan.
by
Men are lying under a Banian, the only place protected from the sun. It is 10:30 a.m., and the thermometer already displays 41 ° C in Delhi, Thursday, May 19. They have just spent four hours in the fields to pick vegetables, on the banks of the Yamuna, the river that runs along the Indian capital. The carts overflow with cucumbers, Lady Finger, Bitter gourd and other cabbage or zucchini that they will sell in the Delhi districts.
These are migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Rajasthan installed with their families on land that has not belonged to them, for thirty or forty years. The banks of the Yamuna, floodplates, thus house 9,300 families of peasants and horticulturalists, more than 46,700 people, who live in extreme destitution, in bamboo huts, without electricity, without access to water Drinking, without asphalt road, in the middle of a no man’s land, crossed by high -voltage lines, the pillars of metro or road exchangers. A sort of sub-world, almost invisible.
The government of Delhi distributes them drinking water by tanker truck. That drawn from the ground, of a yellow color, is loaded with heavy metals and other pollutants; It is just good for washing the laundry and… watering the vegetables.
unsuitable habitats
The heat wave that has been hit since March 11 on north India has damaged their production; They normally win, in the good months, 8,000 rupees (98 euros). Men, women, children suffer from stomach aches, vomiting, diarrhea, but they do not complain, almost surprised that they are asked about the heat wave. “It is much warmer this year. But that doesn’t change anything for us. We have no other or go. In the village, there is no work,” explains a peasant.
The huts do not have a window, just a central opening. The straw roof is covered with a plastic tarpaulin. It is an oven inside and there is no electricity to make a fan work.
A woman returns from her plot, carrying on her head a heavy bowl filled with boot gourd, which she will go and sell. Guna Devi earns 200 rupees per day (2.40 euros). She sublets her plot. If she does not sell the same day, she gives her vegetables to the cows. In one day, in heat, they rot.
Sunday, May 15, the Indian capital of more than 20 million inhabitants, recorded a historic record of 49.2 ° C, in the stations of poor neighborhoods, where there are few trees and town planning very dense. An unbearable furnace suffered by the population in unsuitable habitats. Elsewhere in the megalopolis, he made 46.7 ° C. For two months, the air has been burning, dry and dusty. At night, the thermometer no longer descends below 31 ° C.
You have 64.98% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.