With heat waves becoming more frequent and intense, Nepal is in urgent need of an updated Plan of Action for Heat Wave Risk Reduction and Response.
In April 2026, Kathmandu Valley recorded a temperature of 33°C according to the Department of Hydrology & Meteorology (DHM). While not record-breaking, the city today experiences a pattern where temperatures run constantly above historical averages. This is further exacerbated by rapid urbanization reshaping how heat is absorbed and retained.
The Terai is no exception. The DHM flagged eight districts in the southern plains as high-alert areas. Local studies and DHM forecasts show temperatures between 40°C and 42°C in Kanchanpur, Kailali, Doti, Bardiya, Banke, Dang, Kapilvastu and Rupandehi, leading to severe heat stress.
Before 2024, Nepal’s Heat Action Plan was mostly localised and often supported by the Red Cross and other organisations. Nepalgunj Heat Action Plan (HAP) 2023 was the first localised plan developed through a collaborative effort spearheaded by the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in partnership with the Nepal Red Cross Society (Banke branch), the Nepalgunj Sub-Metropolitan City Office, and technical assistance from partners like ICLEI South Asia (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives). Nepalgunj was a strong pilot as it regularly experiences temperatures crossing 40°C, which are often accompanied by high humidity.
In 2024, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) issued a plan of action for risk reduction and response on measures for protection from heat-waves. In 2025, local heat plans continued and expanded to a few more heat-prone areas. This included Dhangadi and key Terai districts: Rautahat, Mahottari and Siraha municipalities, where temperatures frequently exceeded 40°C.
NDRRMA, under Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs, is actively preparing to draft the National Action Plan for Preparedness and Rapid Response to Extreme Heat 2026. It is focusing on addressing both immediate impacts and long-term adaptation in the current plan. It is building on and coordinating with existing city-level plans while conducting discussions with government bodies, technical and strategic partners, local governments, NGOs and disaster response organisations.
The 2026 version is expected to be a comprehensive version, building on the foundation established by the 2024 Heat-wave Action Plan.
What the 2024 plan got right
The 2024 framework served as an action checklist. It misses out on crucial details regarding cost, logistics and how agencies report progress. The plan appears to be directed towards an immediate response rather than long-term preparedness and research-based planning. The framework had a clear multi-level coordination structure. It assigned roles to a specific responsible agency and auxiliary agency, clarifying roles across different levels of governance. Key actors included: DHM, local levels, and health offices, acknowledging that heat-waves are not a single-agency problem.
The framework strongly emphasised early warning. The flow of information from DHM to municipalities was ensured. Radio, pamphlets, loudspeakers and social media information were utilised to provide information in local languages, increasing efficiency. Practical and locally relevant methods and resources were prioritised. ORS distribution, cooling measures in factories, transport ventilation, water and cooling tents, fans, shade and ventilations were adopted. These methods align realistically with Nepal’s resource constraints. Rest breaks and shift adjustment for workers and adjusted school hours for kids were implemented alongside investing in low-cost infrastructure. Social equity and climate justice were central to the plan. Workers, public transport passengers, farmers, school children and the urban population were included, making the plan inclusive.
Where the system falls short
The 2024 plan missed several critical dimensions of urban heat mapping, long-term cooling infrastructure planning and heat-resilient urban designs. It functions more as an operational checklist for 2024 than a permanent, long-term system.
A key limitation is the absence of clear thresholds for action, and heat-index-based alert responses posed a risk of delayed or inconsistent responses. Due to the absence of data collection and monitoring systems, there is no data on long-term exposure to increasing heat or understanding of heat as an occupational stressor.
Financing and capacity support frameworks are largely absent despite high reliance on local government. Similarly, gender-specific and intersectional measures were not explicitly integrated, increasing physiological vulnerabilities among women, particularly pregnant and lactating women.
The plan remained primarily occupational and institutional in focus. Despite being among the highest physiological risk groups, the elderly population, infants, people with chronic illness and people with disabilities were not taken into consideration.
What needs to change next?
Building on the foundation set by the 2024 plan, the 2026 action plan should emphasise a comprehensive risk management system.
In the immediate term, the highest priority should be to establish a heat health early warning system by introducing heat-based thresholds and standardised national alert categories that trigger health and emergency responses across municipalities.
This should be followed by strengthening data and surveillance systems. Establishing an integrated heat-health surveillance system that links DHM heat wave alerts with the Ministry of Health and Population reporting systems, ensuring coordinated early warning and response between climate and health institutions, enables authorities to monitor heat-related illnesses in real time and respond more effectively.
Requiring public hospitals, primary health care centres, and municipal health posts to report gender- and age-disaggregated heat illness cases during declared heat alert periods would enable real-time monitoring and early warning activation. This would strengthen Nepal’s base for future evidence based planning which can be achieved by developing and institutionalizing standardized heat-health training for doctors, nurses, and primary health care workers under the Ministry of Health and Population, including clinical recognition of heat exhaustion and heat stroke, emergency cooling and treatment protocols, triage management during heat wave surges, and integration of heat-related case reporting into District Health Information System.
The 2026 plan should adopt a more gender responsive and inclusive approach. Women working in informal sectors and subsistence agriculture often face significant heat exposure, yet remain outside many formal protection systems. Expanding access to the insurance scheme, incorporating assigned space for breastfeeding in the cooling centres, and deploying mobile action teams with specialised medical training on identifying and treating exhaustion in pregnant patients who may present different symptoms would help address the gap.
Nepal can further strengthen its preparedness by systematically integrating indigenous and local ecological knowledge (ILK) into Nepal’s heat wave preparedness and adaptation planning. This can be done by documenting and scaling traditional heat coping practices, including vernacular housing designs (natural ventilation, courtyard cooling), community cooling spaces under trees, water conservation practices, and community-based seasonal adaptation strategies that have evolved over generations and can be implemented through collaboration with local governments and community institutions.
Community-based response systems should remain at the centre of Nepal’s response. Female community health volunteers, with their trusted presence and extensive local networks, can play an important role in early warning dissemination by conducting door-to-door awareness during heat alert periods, so they can support vulnerable communities and reach women who do not know how to read hoarding boards or have access to social media. Equipping wards with heat response resources, including Oral Rehydration Supplies at the ward level, would further strengthen grassroots preparedness.
For sustained implementation, dedicated financing mechanisms must be established wherein municipalities should be required to write their own locally tailored heat action plan with a budget for accessing federal funds. Technical support should be provided to the municipalities to ensure the development of a comprehensive plan aligned with federal funding requirements.
For adaptation and mitigation to be taken in parallel, urban heat resilience planning must be expanded by promoting green infrastructure, shaded public spaces, and heat-resilient housing design. This can be further strengthened by mandating the inclusion of heat-resilient design standards in municipal building approval systems under DUDBC and local governments, including ventilation, shading, roof insulation, and minimum indoor thermal comfort requirements for residential and public buildings.
While expanding the health systems, Nepal will need to balance ambitious institutional reforms with existing fiscal and human resource constraints at the municipal level, making phased implementation essential. This will serve as a key factor in building long-term resilience while ensuring immediate protection for the vulnerable population. In strengthening surveillance, early warning, and adaptation measures, a reallocation of budget may be required, which may create tradeoffs with competing priorities.
While measures such as integrating new systems of real-time climate health reporting and climate-linked alerts demand increased technical capacity and allowing municipalities the flexibility to adapt to heat responses and local climatic and institutional realities may initially slow down the process, but will improve long-term efficiency and targeting.
Nepal’s rising heat requires a shift from fragmented responses to a coordinated, data-driven heat governance system. As the country prepares its 2026 Heat Wave Action Plan, the lessons from 2024 are clear: effective adaptation will depend not only on responding to heat emergencies but also on strengthening surveillance, early warning systems, inclusive protection measures and long-term urban resilience. The decisions made today will determine whether Nepal remains reactive to extreme heat or becomes prepared for a hotter future.
