Schools in India’s capital must ring regular bells to remind schoolchildren to drink water as the megacity gears up to face heatwave conditions, a new city order has said.

Summer heat in the world’s most populous nation can be brutal – putting millions of people at risk, with nearly 11,000 people dying due to heatstroke between 2012 and 2021, according to government data.

A heatwave in May 2024 in New Delhi saw temperatures match the capital’s previous record high: 49.2 degrees Celsius (120 degrees Fahrenheit) clocked in 2022.

That year was India’s hottest year since thorough records began in 1901, with sizzling temperatures following a global pattern of extreme weather driven by climate change.

The temperature on Wednesday morning in Delhi and the wider sprawling metropolitan region of 30 million residents was a relatively balmy 29.4 degrees.

But weather forecasters predict temperatures will hit 41 to 43 degrees later on Wednesday, and rise to 42 to 44 degrees later in the week.