Daily Times

KARACHI: A grave digger in Karachi that was caught up last summers when the heat wave killed more than 1,300 people, has hired a digger to dig elongated trenches that have a space to bury 100 people each.

Baloch is 28 years old and he works along with his other three brothers in Karachi cemetery that is run by Edhi charitable foundation.

Baloch said, “Thanks to God, we are better prepared this year”.

In summer 2015 when the heat wave struck, graveyards, hospitals and morgues were loaded in a city of more than 20m people.

Most of the victims of heat wave were daytime labourers, drug addicts and elderly people that beg or did not have shelter.

Since 1981, it was the highest temperature of 111 Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius) and the normal heat level reached 37 degrees (99F).

However, Pakistan’s meteorological office has not predicted any disaster like happened previous year, but Army and charitable foundations are ready for anything that comes our way.

“It will not get out of control the way it happen last year,” said Karachi Commissioner Asif Hyder Shah, adding that nearly 60 hospitals now have spare capacity for 1,850 heat wave patients.

During the heat disaster of last year, patients were forced to sleep on the floor of ward because of the long awaiting queues. Up to 200 response centres have been arranged in the city that will offer an initial heat-stroke treatment in order to stabilise the conditions of patients.

There are also 700 relief centres that are serving water and rehydration salts.

While drinking a cup of water at one of the relief centres, a street vendor Muhammad Mahmood said, “This will save lives. It’s a comfort.”

To minimize the suffering this year as caused last year, Edhi foundation has been doing their best. They are working on increasing the number of their ambulances, installing more shelves in morgue freezer and buying more cooling machines that will help cool down the patients and in keeping the corpses from rotting. Because last summers, their morgue freezer ran out of space after storing 650 bodies and ambulances left the dead bodies in heat outside.