> But in Shaheen Bagh, another heat island neighbourhood in Delhi where people mostly live in small modern high-rise buildings, Nazim Khan, 54, who has run his AC-rental business for more than a decade, described the rise in temperatures, desperation and demand he had witnessed first-hand.
>
> “It’s a matter of survival,” he says. “I would say 50% of the apartments in this neighbourhood are unlivable without an AC: they are small with no windows or ventilation even for cooking. I see families making huge sacrifices to afford one.”
>
> For most families in this neighbourhood, renting a secondhand AC is the only affordable option, though it often leaves them with the most inefficient models, which come with much higher electricity costs and are more prone to leaking gas.
> It has become common for several families or groups to collectively rent out an AC to share the cost and then all sleep together in a single room for the summer months.
>
[ … ]
>
> “We are like emergency workers,” he said. “Every summer I see more people dying. They say it was from one disease or another but we all know that it’s the terrible heat that leads to their death.”
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> But in Shaheen Bagh, another heat island neighbourhood in Delhi where people mostly live in small modern high-rise buildings, Nazim Khan, 54, who has run his AC-rental business for more than a decade, described the rise in temperatures, desperation and demand he had witnessed first-hand.
>
> “It’s a matter of survival,” he says. “I would say 50% of the apartments in this neighbourhood are unlivable without an AC: they are small with no windows or ventilation even for cooking. I see families making huge sacrifices to afford one.”
>
> For most families in this neighbourhood, renting a secondhand AC is the only affordable option, though it often leaves them with the most inefficient models, which come with much higher electricity costs and are more prone to leaking gas.
> It has become common for several families or groups to collectively rent out an AC to share the cost and then all sleep together in a single room for the summer months.
>
[ … ]
>
> “We are like emergency workers,” he said. “Every summer I see more people dying. They say it was from one disease or another but we all know that it’s the terrible heat that leads to their death.”