When Heatwaves Overwhelm Kano Residents
By Abdullahi Yusuf
Heat is referred to as a condition of being hot or warm.It is also termed as a notable degree of hotness.Heat comes in many forms including scorching sunlight and humidity.
Ordinarily, we use heat to cook,warm our rooms, cars and steam our bodies, among other benefits.But when heat becomes so intense in the atmsosphere,it makes us uncomfortable and therefore diminishes our capacity to function as human beings.
Kano,the commercial capital and political hotbed of Northern Nigeria, has of late, come under severe heatwaves that are making lives unbearable for its residents, such that the inhabitants are now longing for divine intervention.
For several days now, temperatures have risen to as high as 45 degrees Celsius during the daytime, dropping only to about 30 degrees Celsius in the night, only to rise again few hours later.
This condition that is characterized by scotching sunlight,intense humidity and hot air, makes residents of the city to sweat profusely while conducting their activities during the day, wether in the markets, offices, streets and other public places.
Except, of course, when they enter some air conditioned offices, cars or the few shopping malls around, before they return to the inclement weather outside.
In the evening,the helpless inhabitants retire to their various homes to face another heatstroke occasioned by power outages, congestion, poor sanitation,poor ventilation and steaming structures.
Worst hit are women and children in the city’s matrimonial homes whom have little or no chances of moving out to access some fresh air elsewhere.
The privileged few among them use air conditioners to cool their rooms for the night, but the rest wallow in the biting heat all night, with many of them sleeping in the open,or even on roof tops, so as to get some cool breeze that usually comes in the early hours of the next day.
The traumatized residents wake up the next morning feeling tired and with body pains due to poor sleep and inadequate rest sustained during the previous hot night.
This condition, medical experts say, adversely affects the productivity of the heatwave sufferers as they cannot function optimally in their various places of work to produce the desired outputs,thus deflating their daily income.
The medical experts advised that people affected by the inclement weather should be taking a lot of water to replace the fluids they lose through the sweating, especially during the day.They call it rehydration.
Unfortunately,water vendors and ice block sellers in the ancient city have cashed in on the situation to increase the prices of their commodities, selling them at prohibitive prices.
This has compounded the predicament of the residents as they need to buy water and ice blocks to nourish their body against the prevailing heatstrokes.
Similarly, the current high pump price of petroleum products, especially petrol and diesel, are not helping matters, because many dwellers of the ancient city are no longer able to buy diesel or petrol to fuel their standby generators and power their air conditioners and/or fans to cushion the effects of the heat.
In the same vein, many of the heat-struck residents now trek long distances because they cannot afford transport fares which have also risen in response to the increase in the prices of fuel.This causes them to sweat uncontrollably, thus increasing their dehydration in the unfriendly weather.
Again,the thin vegetation cover in the city caused by continued felling of trees coupled with smokes coming from thousands of vehicles playing the city’s well-tarred roads, further heat up the atmosphere.
As the heatwaves continue to envelope the city, the residents are pervently hoping and praying for rainfall which will neutralize the inclement weather to enable them to return to their normal lives.
Some rain showers had been recorded in parts of the city recently, but which did not actually bring any relief, instead,they triggered radiation from underneath the earth,thus bringing fresh heatwaves to the horizon.
Weather experts have predicted that the actual rainy season will begin to set in Kano towards the end of May through middle of June,but these are just forecasts,as Allah in his immense bounties may answer our prayers so that we experience the rains earlier than predicted.
May Allah(SWT) continue to protect us from the adverse weather.