Daily Times

KARACHI: The ongoing spell of severe heat continued on fourth consecutive day on Tuesday with temperatures reaching 44°C.

Two more bodies were brought to Edhi Foundation’s mortuaries in the city with heatstroke cited as the cause of death, raising the number of such cases to 69.

On Monday, Daily Times broke the story citing Faisal Edhi, who heads the philanthropy. From Saturday evening till Monday morning, 64 bodies of people who reportedly died from heat strokes were brought to the two Edhi mortuaries. Three more cases were reported dead from heat strokes later in the evening, raising the number to 67.

From 10 PM on Monday to 7 PM on Tuesday, two cases of deaths from heat stroke were reported at the morgue in Sohrab Goth. They were identified in the daily roster of bodies received at the morgue as Yasin Khan, 35, a resident of Jhatial Goth in Gadap Town; and Saeed Khan, 75, a resident of Moosa Colony in Karimabad.

Meanwhile, no such case was reported at the mortuary in Korangi. “On Wednesday, we didn’t receive a single body at the morgue in Korangi,” said Bilal, an employee with the foundation.

He said a body was reported at the philanthropy’s third mortuary, in Lyari, but the cause of death was not heatstroke.

Meanwhile, the authorities continued to dismiss Edhi’s figures, insisting that no deaths had occurred in the city this year due to heatstrokes.

“I respect Edhi Foundation, but their data on the deaths due to heatstroke is not correct, we have not received any information of a single death due to the heatstroke,” said Nasir Hussain Shah, the provincial for Information, Transport and Labour.

Talking to the journalists on Tuesday, he said that the provincial government had made arrangements to cope with the heatwave. However, he said, the situation could worsen due to K-Electric’s (KE) unannounced load-shedding.

According to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), on Tuesday, the maximum temperature in Karachi was recorded at 44 degrees Celsius with humidity falling below 10 percent mark.

The PMD had issued an advisory last week on Thursday maintaining that the coastal city would be hit by a heatwave from Saturday (May 19) onwards. “No sea breeze is expected and it is also predicted that a hot to very hot weather is likely to prevail in Karachi during next 5-6 days and maximum temperature is expected to remain in the range of 40-43 degree Celsius during this period,” the advisory read.

While the city and provincial administrations have established camps to provide relief to heat stroke victims, but no satisfactory arrangements have been put in place at public hospitals.

Water and juice packs were also distributed among visitors at camps set up by Sindh Rangers and the police.

In Sindh Government Korangi Hospital, there is no special arrangement for heatstroke patients.

In the meantime, Government of Sindh instructed the management of all medical centers to be high alert anytime from dawn to dusk. However, orders from Chief Minister and Health Secretary have been at kept at bay. With additional reporting by Muzamil Ferozi

Published in Daily Times, May 23^rd 2018.