Deaths During Annual Hajj in Saudi Arabia Underscore Extreme Heat Dangers

Over 1,300 Muslim pilgrims reportedly died throughout the annual Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, this month in Saudi Arabia, the place temperatures have soared past 50 levels Celsius (122 levels Fahrenheit). 

Unmitigated publicity to excessive warmth may cause a variety of identified well being harms together with organ failure and even dying. Warmth stress is believed to have prompted most of the deaths, a totally preventable occasion. This reinforces the necessity for stronger warmth safety measures, particularly for teams notably susceptible to warmth stress like older individuals and other people with disabilities. 

Unregistered pilgrims had been reportedly disadvantaged entry to public amenities like air-conditioned tents, misting facilities, transportation, or water rehydration areas. Excessive official Hajj prices are thought of a major issue driving unregistered standing, with many tour firms sending pilgrims with out Hajj permits on necessary private go to visas. Authorities have additionally emphasised that “83 p.c of [the dead] didn’t have permits, that means they had been uncovered to lengthy distances and durations underneath the solar with out shelter.…” 

Nonetheless, Saudi authorities have an obligation to guard individuals’s well being from identified hazards like excessive warmth, which the local weather disaster is just making extra frequent and intense. Past Hajj, they need to implement warmth safety measures to raised safeguard the well being of all these in danger. 

That is particularly pressing given Saudi Arabia’s plans underneath Imaginative and prescient 2030, which incorporates rising the annual variety of non secular pilgrims to 30 million from 8 million, and holding mega-events in sports activities and music that might entail excessive warmth publicity.  

Saudi Arabia additionally hosts hundreds of thousands of migrant staff who perform the overwhelming majority of outside work and are uncovered to excessive warmth amid insufficient protections. There are a number of deliberate “giga-projects” that can depend on this a  large migrant workforce. This contains FIFA’s 2034 Males’s World Cup, which Saudi Arabia – as the only bidder – is predicted to host;, the estimated US$500 billion NEOM metropolis;, the US$50 billion Pink Sea undertaking;, and the US$200 billion Al Qiddiya tasks. To guard migrant staff, Saudi Arabia ought to implement risk-based measures such for environmental warmth and strenuous work generally assessed  generally by the Moist Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) to impose correct work-rest schedules.  

Subsequent yr’s Hajj, too, will happen throughout the summer time. Whereas authorities have acknowledged the acute warmth dangers and brought measures to mitigate the impacts for pilgrims, this yr’s excessive variety of deaths warmth stroke circumstances present that Saudi Arabia must do extra to handle this main public well being danger.