A devastating heatwave is presently ravaging Pakistan, with record-high temperatures wreaking havoc on people’s lives and infrastructure.
The largest city in Pakistan, Karachi, has been experiencing very hot weather since Saturday. According to sources, the temperature has exceeded 40 degrees Celsius for three days in a row, and the situation is getting worse due to heavy humidity.
Due to the extreme heat, 450 people have died in the city over the past four days, according to a major NGO’s report on Wednesday. Thousands more people have been hospitalized for heatstrokes.
Pakistan’s clinics and hospitals are overburdened as they attempt to handle the surge in heat-related ailments.
More than 1,500 people suffering from heatstroke were treated at different hospitals in Karachi on Monday alone, according to local media.
Patients experienced symptoms like fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. The largest ambulance service in Pakistan, run by the Edhi Foundation, told AP that it usually takes between thirty and forty bodies a day to the morgue in Karachi.
But according to the BBC, in the last six days, they have gathered about 568 bodies, including 141 on Tuesday alone.
Emergency services discovered about thirty bodies on Karachi’s streets on Monday, according to The Dawn. It is thought that a large number of these victims are drug users who are homeless, according to Police Surgeon Summaiya Syed.
On Tuesday, the government of Sindh freed 23 bodies from three government hospitals. Millions of migrants from around the nation, as well as those from Afghanistan and other African nations, call Karachi home. Among them are hundreds of thousands of homeless drug addicts.
A number of free or heavily discounted services are offered to the impoverished, homeless, abandoned infants, abused women, and orphans on the streets by Edhi’s Welfare Foundation.
Even in this worst weather, he continued, “the sad fact is that many of these bodies have come from areas where a lot of load shedding is going on.”
Pakistan has been suffering from frequent power outages due to high demand and intense heat, which has left many people without air conditioning or fans to stay cool.
The Express Tribune reported that the electrical board intentionally rationed power because the country’s demand for electricity has increased to 26,500 megawatts while production capacity is at 20,253 megawatts.
Also Read: Why Balochistan is turning into graveyard for Pakistan Army
The company that provides electricity to the city, Karachi Electric, says it must implement blackouts since the Sindh government has not yet paid its outstanding debt of Rs. 10 billion.
According to reports, load shedding lasting up to six hours is in effect countrywide, with power outages lasting up to 12 or 14 hours in places with significant line losses.
The heat wave, which started in May, is expected to break next week, according to weather analysts, giving Pakistanis some relief.
