Record-breaking heatwaves and water shortages in Thailand, and across Southeast Asia, are causing fish to die in reservoirs, school suspensions and health warnings, as temperatures, and humidity levels in particular, reach dangerous heights.
Vietnam, Laos, Myanmair and Thailand have all been experiencing weeks of extreme highs over 40˚C, the temperature at which it becomes harder for humans to cool themselves, especially in high humidity climates that prevent perspiration from evaporating. The elderly, young children, and people with co-morbidities are especially vulnerable to heat stroke, respiratory and heart problems in these weather conditions.
Hundreds of records [have been] brutalised all over Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines and all Asia. We are seeing what three centuries of climatology never saw.
Maximiliano Herrera, climatologist and weather historian
Humans, crops, fish, coral all suffering
It’s not just a problem for humans. A whole reservoir of fish has died in Vietnam, where coral reefs are also feared for. Canal water levels are so low, farmers cannot transport their crops, which are also affected. In Indonesia rice prices are rocketing.
In the Phillipines, 47,000 schools were closed to in-person classes with the mercury at 53˚C at the end of April. Pools have been set up in the street for children to play in as authorities struggle to respond to the situation, which scientists are attributing to the exponential effects of global warming, combined with El Niño conditions.
Not prepared or “in hand”?
“We’re just not prepared,” said Prof Benjamin Horton, director of Singapore’s Earth Observatory. “There’s very few, if any, places in the world that are resilient to this type of heat.” Horton noted that the temperatures around the world over the last year had “surprised science” and acknowledged, “We always knew we were going to be headed in this direction with our increasing greenhouse gases, but the fact that we’re shattering all these records in 2023, and 2024, is perhaps slightly ahead of time.”
Meanwhile, reviews left on travel sites reveal tourist infrastructure struggling with water shortages, while locals claim that tourist resorts are being prioritised. In Phuket, the Thai destination made famous by the Leonardo di Caprio movie, The Beach, “the private water company that supplies the island is going to have to cut off the supply,” the president of a local hospitality industry association told press, adding: “But we want to assure tourists planning on visiting the islands that the situation is in hand.”
