Bangladesh court orders all schools closure amid heatwave

A High Court Division bench in Bangladesh on Monday ordered the closure of primary and secondary schools until Thursday amid an unprecedented heatwave that has smashed temperature records in the South Asian country.

The order was issued following media reports that some students and teachers in parts of the country have fallen ill after classes resumed amid the ongoing heatwave.

Schools and colleges reopened on Sunday after closing from April 21 to 27 due to the extreme heatwave conditions.

Bangladesh on Sunday extended the heat alert as the ongoing heatwave is likely to persist for 72 more hours, following earlier alerts issued on April 19, 22 and 25 as the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) continues to monitor and respond to the challenging weather patterns affecting most parts of Bangladesh.

On Monday, Bangladesh recorded the highest temperature this summer season at 43 degrees Celsius in Chuadanga district, some 215 km west of the national capital Dhaka. The temperature for Dhaka rose to 40.5 degrees Celsius.

Dhaka experienced the temperature of 40.6 degrees Celsius on April 16 last year, the highest in the capital in 58 years.

This year the heat started in early April, for all the time leaving people gasping in whatever shade they find in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country.

Millions of people are at the risk of heat-related impacts, experts have warned, and linked the early onset of an intense summer to climate change.

There have been multiple reports of the death from heatstroke countrywide in the past few days. On Monday a farmer reportedly died from heatstroke. So far, around 35 people, allegedly due to heatstroke, died in the past two weeks in the country.

In recent years, natural disasters like floods and heatwaves induced by extreme weather conditions blamed on climate change have caused more frequent than usual disasters in the country of some 165 million population.

Experts said heatwaves would likely escalate in the coming years due to erratic rainfall and high temperatures, posing a bigger threat to Bangladesh, one of the biggest victims of global warming.