Heatwaves killed More than 450 People in the Karachi Region

Picture courtesy: (AFP) A volunteer sprays water on a bypasser’s face along a street during a heatwave crisis in Karachi.

(The Post News)- On Wednesday, June 26, a leading NGO announced that a searing heat wave that has affected Pakistan’s largest city has resulted in the deaths of 450 people in the last four days.

The Edhi Foundation said that it received at least 427 bodies during the last four days, excluding Wednesday.

However, the Sindh government released 23 bodies on Tuesday in three government hospitals.

Karachi, Pakistan’s port city, has been sweltering under extreme heat over the weekend, with temperatures soaring above 40 °C for the third consecutive day on Wednesday, marking the highest levels recorded in the coastal areas.

Faisal Edhi, who heads the Foundation, said that they have at least four mortuaries operating in Karachi; those mortuaries have reached a stage where there is no more space to store the bodies.

As the temperatures increased in southern Pakistan, so did the body count.

The Edhi medical service states that it usually takes at least 30 to 40 people to the Karachi city mortuary daily.

However, over the past six days, at least 568 bodies have been received, with 141 of them arriving on Tuesday alone. The authorities were undoubtedly able to determine the cause of death in each case.

However, reports indicate that the increase in deaths came as temperatures in Karachi rose above 40 °C with the high humidity, which makes it even more hot at 49 °C.

Dr. Imran Sarwar Sheikh, head of the emergency department, said Civil Hospital Karachi admitted 267 people with heatstroke on Sunday and Wednesday; twelve of them lost their lives.

Sheikh said that most of the people who were coming into the hospital were in their 60s or 70s; others were around 45, including a couple in their 20s.

Symptoms were vomiting, diarrhoea, and a high fever.

Heatwave centres and camps were put into place to provide relief to the public. Doctors in the city stated that they’d never witnessed anything like it before.

Karachi resident Mohammad Zeshan added, saying that it was clear what the problem was due to climate change.

The heatwave roasting Karachi is expected to go on even next week, albeit with slightly lower temperatures forecast.

Weather experts are now focusing their attention on the monsoon season, which is expected to occur early and bring as much as 60% more rain, according to experts who spoke to Dawn.