Dozens feared killed in Karachi heatwave
Temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius
KARACHI, May 22, (AFP): Dozens of people are feared to have died in a heatwave gripping Pakistan’s largest city Karachi this week, a charity in the sprawling metropolis said Tuesday, as temperatures hit 42 degrees Celsius (108 degrees Fahrenheit).
The non-profit Edhi Foundation said scores may have been killed by the sweltering weather, with double the usual number of bodies sent to the city’s morgues in recent days.
“We have received 180 dead bodies in the last four days which is more than double of what we receive normally,” said Faisal Edhi, head of the welfare organisation which oversees a variety of public health projects – including morgues and ambulance services.
“The majority of these were sudden deaths because of the heatwave as claimed by their relatives, which we cannot independently verify.”
The provincial government in Sindh province disputed the estimate.
“Only one casualty has been reported due to heat stroke so far,” said Muhammad Ali Shaikh, Director of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority in Sindh told AFP
The heatwave coincides with the beginning of Ramadan, when millions of devout Pakistanis abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department warned “hot to very hot weather is likely to prevail in Karachi during next 2-3 days”, forecasting highs of 44 degrees Celsius during the period.
Aamir Habib, from Karachi’s Korangi, said his brother was among the dead and had been rushed to the hospital after collapsing at work on Monday.
“The doctors said he died because of heat stroke,” Habib told AFP.
The mega port city, capital of southern Sindh province, is hit by frequent power cuts and has few green spaces.
People living on its crowded streets have little access to shelter or safe drinking water, making them acutely at risk in blistering temperatures.
In June 2015 about 1,200 people died in southern Pakistan during a heatwave, with nearly two-thirds of the victims homeless people.
In related news, the heatwave has coincided with power outages and the holy month of Ramadan, when most Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours. Temperatures hit 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit) on Monday, local media reported.
A government spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
But Sindh province’s Health Secretary Fazlullah Pechuho told the English-language Dawn newspaper that no one has died from heat-stroke.
“Only doctors and hospitals can decide whether the cause of death was heatstroke or not. I categorically reject that people have died due to heat-stroke in Karachi,” Pechuho was quoted as saying.
Nonetheless, reports of heat stroke deaths in Karachi will stir unease amid fears of a repeat of a heatwave in of 2015, when morgues and hospitals were overwhelmed and at least 1,300 mostly elderly and sick people died from the searing heat.
In 2015, the Edhi morgue ran out of freezer space after about 650 bodies were brought in the space of a few days. Ambulances left decaying corpses outside in sweltering heat.
The provincial government has assured residents that there would be no repeat of 2015 and was working on ensuring those in need of care receive rapid treatment.