Karachi’s Edhi mortuary reaches full capacity
MORE BODIES ARE BEING BROUGHT IN TO AVOID DECOMPOSITION
Edhi Foundation mortuary, the largest facility in the city, reached its full capacity yesterday as 150 bodies were brought by relatives to avoid rapid decomposition amid the ongoing heat wave.
Chaotic scenes were observed at the Edhi mortuary, located at Sohrab Goth, as many relatives were not able to find space for the bodies of their deceased relatives.
The temperature remained at 40 degrees Celsius during peak hours, though it came down significantly compared to Saturday when the mercury touched about 45C, with intensive power breakdowns in the city paralysing civic life.
Power crisis
Anwar Kazmi, the Edhi Foundation spokesman, said that usually one compartment of the mortuary can accommodate 150 bodies and, when the need arises, an extended facility had been opened. But the electricity crisis did not allow the foundation to use the extended facility to absorb more bodies.
“If someone has died in the morning and the relatives have planned to carry out the funeral in the afternoon, they too are bringing the bodies to our mortuary to use our cold storage facilities instead of keeping the body at home,” Kazmi told Gulf News.
Even the 30 unclaimed bodies, which were kept at the mortuary lately, were removed to create space for the newly arrived bodies. “We have buried the 30 unclaimed bodies at our graveyard to accommodate the bodies which are arriving today,” he said.
The Edhi staff were ensuring the rapid disposal of the bodies to prevent their decaying because of frequent power outages which were affecting the chiller plant of the mortuary.