Daily Times

KARACHI: Two Edhi mortuaries in Korangi and Sohrab Goth areas of the port city have received a total of 117 bodies, including 67 of people died due to heatstroke, since Saturday, Faisal Edhi, head of Edhi Foundation, told Daily Times on Monday.

According to Edhi mortuary Sohrab Goth in-charge Imran, the number of deaths could be much higher. “There are dozens of mortuaries being run by several private philanthropists, religious organisations, besides state-run morgues in the city, an no one knows the number of bodies these mortuaries and morgues have received in the last three days,” he said, adding the 67 corpses received were of the people of different age groups – there were as young as 16 and old as 78.

“At Edhi mortuary Korangi, we usually receive 10 or 11 bodies every day, but since Saturday evening, we have received 34 bodies, while around 33 dead bodies were received at Sohrab Goth centre in the last three days and it was feared that a majority of them have died of heatstroke” Faisal Edhi told Daily Times via telephone.

“The majority of heatstroke victims were resident of different colonies of Landhi and Korangi Town,” he added.

“Though we do not write the cause of death in our register, almost all of them died due to heatstroke as told by the survivors,” said Imran.

On May 17, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) issued an advisory, saying that Karachi would be hit by heatwave from May 19.

“Hot to very hot weather is likely to prevail in Karachi during the next five to six days and maximum temperature is expected to remain in the range of 40-43 degree Celsius during the period,” read the advisory.

However, prolonged power outages and an acute shortage of water aggravated the situation

In 2015, Karachi was hit by one of world’s deadliest heatwaves that killed over 1,200 people. Independent sources said that the number of deaths was much more than the official count.

Faisal Edhi, head of Edhi Foundation, estimated that there were more than 15,000 casualties in the city.

According to experts, a heatwave occurs when the city witnesses temperature five degrees Celsius above average level for more than five consecutive days. Since Karachi is a coastal city, it gets sea breeze around the clock that helps the city cool down during intense heat spells. But if the Arabian Sea witnesses air depression it makes the heatwave deadly.

Pakistan is sixth worst victim of climate change and several international bodies have warned that Pakistan will be hit by deadly heatwaves in the coming years. With increasing population and rising number of vehicles, massive cutting of urban forest, acute water shortage and prolonged power cuts, Karachi is becoming more vulnerable to heatwaves in the near future.

Published in Daily Times, May 22^nd 2018.