Bodies pile up in Karachi heat
Scores dead as electricity grid crashes
AN intense heatwave over three days has killed more than 180 people in Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, leading authorities to declare an emergency as the electricity grid crashed and bodies stacked up in the morgues.
The outages hit large portions of Karachi, Pakistan’s financial heart and home to 20 million people, where residents lit bonfires in protest.
Unclaimed bodies were being rapidly buried to create space in the morgues, Anwar Kazmi, a senior official of the charitable Edhi Foundation, said.
“We are urging people to bury their dead at the earliest in view of the current heatwave and poor power situation,” he said.
“We have not run out of capacity at the morgue, but buried 30 unclaimed bodies this morning to create more space.”
The heat caused at least 180 deaths since Friday night, Sabir Memon, Sindh province’s additional secretary for health, said.
Leave for medical staff was cancelled, and extra drips and rehydration salts were being distributed to hospitals, he said. Casualties were still being tallied.
“Hundreds of patients suffer- ing from the heatwave are being treated at government hospitals,” provincial health secretary Saeed Mangnejo said.
Temperatures soared to 44°C on Saturday and hovered at 43°C on Sunday, coinciding with a surge of demand for power as families observed Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daylight hours. Reports said yesterday’s temperature was even higher.
Both the government and power company K-Electric promised there would be no outages during the time when families gathered to break their fast at sunset.
But power cuts left many families without water, air-conditioning, fans and lights.
K-Electric said the heatwave triggered unprecedented demand and that many faults were caused by illegal hookups overloading power lines.
Teams trying to fix the faults were attacked and employees badly beaten, spokesman Taha Siddiqui said.
Corruption and mismanagement mean most of Pakistan usually suffers at least eight hours of power cuts daily. Those in poorer areas are worse off.