“Stay Home or Feed Your Family”: Nepal’s Heat Crisis Is Now an Income Emergency

July 31, 2026

As extreme temperatures hit Nepal this season, above 42 degrees Celsius for multiple days, Mercy Corps warns that heat is becoming an income and food-security emergency: draining water sources, putting rice crops under pressure, cutting working hours, and disrupting children’s education. 

For daily-wage workers, farmers, street vendors and other outdoor workers, recommendations to avoid the hottest part of the day can be impossible to follow. With farmers in some districts facing income loss of 45%, without paid leave or financial protection, protecting health can mean losing income families need to eat. Those most at risk are pregnant women, the elderly, and people with other medical conditions, and smallholder farmers are particularly vulnerable: about 70% are women, and face a double impact as extreme heat places pressure on both the water and labour needed to produce food for their families. 

From heat domes in Europe to extreme temperatures across South Asia, heat is moving through the agricultural economy, cutting what people can grow, earn, and learn. Those with the least savings, weakest public services, and greatest reliance on outdoor work have the least protection. 

Suraj Sigdel, Mercy Corps Country Director for Nepal, says: 

“Extreme heat is now a poverty multiplier. When temperature rises above 40 degrees, it immediately impacts the plantation of rice, vegetables, and maize. When it is unsafe to work through the hottest hours, a daily-wage worker loses the income that buys dinner. When schools close or children are too unwell to concentrate, the education loss follows them long after temperatures fall. 

“We are already entering a future in which parts of the working day become unusable. For millions of people, advice to ‘stay indoors’ is impossible to follow if staying home means not eating. No one should have to choose between heatstroke and feeding their family. 

“Warnings can’t simply tell people they are in danger. Nepal needs local forecasts tied to practical action: shaded, water-equipped workplaces and schools; safer working hours and paid rest; targeted advice for farmers; pre-agreed cash or heat insurance to replace lost wages; trained health staff; and dedicated public funding that treats heat as the recurring disaster we are now living with. 

“Extreme heat should be fully integrated into Nepal’s disaster planning, early-warning systems and public budgets. Heat alerts should be localized, provide practical guidance for different sectors, and activate pre-agreed support for affected communities. Longer-term investment is also needed in heat-resilient schools, reliable drinking-water infrastructure, workplace protections, cooling and shade, climate-smart agriculture, and financial protection for workers and farmers. 

“These are protections we can build now. The real danger is treating each heatwave as an isolated emergency when extreme heat is steadily eroding food security, income, health, and future opportunity. Countries that act before the next heat emergency will save lives and protect livelihoods. Those that wait will pay far more.” 

Through the Zurich Climate Resilience Alliance, Mercy Corps works with communities and governments in Nepal to strengthen local climate-risk planning and adaptation. Mercy Corps has worked in Nepal for more than 18 years across disaster risk reduction, climate resilience, anticipatory action, livelihoods, agriculture, food security and water and sanitation. 

 

Notes to Editors 

  • Mercy Corps’ global report, Too Hot to Ignore, describes extreme heat as a deadly but under-prioritized threat that is outpacing local adaptation. It identifies income loss, health impacts and crop losses as major risks and calls for greater investment in early-warning systems, anticipatory cash, heat insurance, resilient infrastructure, and government preparedness. 
  • Mercy Corps’ 2025 report on heat in Nepal, Heatwave Impact and Coping Strategies in Public Schools of Madhesh Province, surveyed 347 public schools across 79 municipalities. It found: 
    • 91.2% of schools reported heat-related health problems affecting children and teachers. 
    • Schools closed for an average of 10.87 days during periods of extreme heat; some reported closures lasting up to 41 days. 
    • 90.5% lacked a school-safety guideline, and only 8.7% had a disaster-management plan. 
  • Wheat yield losses ranged from 0–45% across municipalities, with the highest reductions observed in Katahariya (45.2%) and Tilathi Koiladi (30.1%). Farmers also experienced rising production costs, with wheat input costs increasing by up to 40.7% during heat-affected seasons. 

  • Heat stress reduced labour productivity and working hours in several municipalities; average daily working hours declined during extreme heat conditions. The largest reduction was observed in Katahariya Municipality, where average work hours decreased from 8.37 hours to 4.78 hours per day (43% decline). 

  • Analysis from Nepal’s Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM) from 21 stations between April 1 and July 28 identified 28 confirmed heatwave days under DHM's official heatwave definition (≥40°C at five or more stations for at least three consecutive days), accounting for 24% of the 119-day observation period. 

    • Madhesh Province experienced an average of 9.1 heatwave days from 1990–2014. In contrast, 28 confirmed heatwave days were recorded in just four months of 2026, already exceeding the historical average by 204%. 
       

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