Almost 700 die in Pakistan heatwave

NEARLY 700 people have died from a three-day heat wave in southern Pakistan, officials said yesterday, as medics battled to treat victims after a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.

The majority of the deaths occurred in the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s economic hub of about 20 million people, where temperatures reached 45°C at the weekend, senior provincial health official Sabir Memon said.

“The number of people who have died in government hospitals due to the heat wave is now 692. The death toll may go up,” he said.

The deaths came as the overwhelmingly Muslim country of about 200 million people observes the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, during which eating and drinking are forbidden from sunrise to sunset.

A doctor at Karachi’s largest hospital, Semi Jamali, said they had treated about 3 000 patients.

“More than 200 of them were either received dead or died in hospital.”

Pakistan’s largest charity, Edhi Welfare Organisation, said their two morgues in the city had received more than 400 bodies in the past three days, and the facilities had reached capacity.

Electricity shortages had crippled the water supply system in Karachi, hampering the pumping of millions of litres of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.

Pakistan’s Meteorological Office said temperatures remained at about 44.5°C in Karachi yesterday but forecast thunderstorms starting in the evening and possibly continuing for a few days.

The provincial government meanwhile announced a public holiday to encourage residents to stay inside, an official said.

Many of the victims have been labourers who toil outdoors.

Some residents also took to hosing each other down with water yesterday to avoid collapsing from heatstroke.

Prominent Islamic cleric Tahir Ashrafi urged those who were at risk of heatstroke to abstain from fasting.

“We [religious scholars] have highlighted on television channels that those who are at risk, especially in Karachi where there is a very serious situation, should abstain from fasting,” he said.

An official from the National Disaster Management Authority said heatstroke treatment centres would be established at all hospitals across the province to provide emergency medicines for heatstroke victims.

The deaths come a month after neighbouring India suffered a deadly heat wave, with more than 2 000 deaths – the secondhighest summer heat toll in the country’s history. – AFP