Daily Times

KARACHI: The Sindh Health Directorate has written instructed all district health officers (DHO) and major public healthcare facilities to remain on high alert with all preparedness to tackle the looming threat of heatwave likely to hit the city on Sunday.

Earlier, the Met Office had predicted that the heatwave is again expected in Karachi from October 10 to 13.

In a letter, Karachi Health Services Director Dr Mohammad Toufique directed all health facilities in the city to keep healthcare facilities prepare to cope with the situation if arise.

A control room has also been established in the office of the Health Services Director at Civic Centre, while Dr Shahid, Dr Abdul Ghani Shaikh and Dr Wazir Ahmed Shaikh have been appointed focal persons.

The health director also directed management of all health facilities to functionalise the heat stroke treatment and stabilisation centres to provide emergency medical treatment.

He asked management of the facilities to depute medical and paramedical staff and allocate separate beds with provision of essential medicines.

As per World Meteorological Organisation, a heat-wave occurs when the daily maximum temperature of more than five consecutive days exceeds the average maximum temperature by 5 degree Celsius.

“Keeping the previous experience in mind we will have to prepare ourselves to cope with the possible heatwave,” Dr Toufique added.

He urged the public to avoid direct sun exposure if during the current heat wave in the city.

A severe heatwave with temperatures as high as 49 degree Celsius struck southern Pakistan in June 2015. It caused the deaths of about 2,000 people from dehydration and heat stroke, mostly in Sindh province and its capital city, Karachi.

The heat wave also claimed the lives of zoo animals and countless agricultural livestock. The event followed a separate heatwave in neighbouring India that killed 2,500 people in May 2015.

A former official of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency had said the heatwave was a symptom of global climate change, aggravated by deforestation, expansion of asphalt superhighways, and rapid urbanisation.

He maintained that there had been a rise in the earth’s average temperature from 15.5 degree Celsius to 16.2 degree Celsius over the last 100 years, due to which people were experiencing extreme weather conditions both in summers and winters.

Published in Daily Times, October 7^th 2017.