Pakistan withers under deadly heat and fears the coming rainy season

KARACHI – In nearly every corner of Karachi, there are signs of the heatwave scorching the sun-baked city.

Hundreds of patients suffering from heat-related illnesses pour into the hospitals every day, pushing the hospitals far past their capacity. Morgues overwhelmed by a surge in bodies are struggling to find space.

Frustrated residents have begun blocking roads with stones and sticks to protest against shortages of electricity and drinking water. Even the usually bustling markets and streets have emptied as people avoid leaving their homes unless they must.

Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and its economic hub, is the latest place to suffer as South Asia roasts under

a blistering heatwave this summer,

a brutal reminder of the deadly toll of climate change in a part of the world especially vulnerable to its effects, and in a country where ineffective governance and large economic disparities have magnified the sufferings of its poorest citizens.

In a particularly dire eight-day stretch in late June, temperatures reached 40 deg C, with high humidity adding to the misery. That was the hottest since 2015, a year when officials reported that more than 1,200 people died from heat-related causes in Karachi.

With temperatures still hovering near 38 deg C, the sense of crisis has persisted.

“It feels like living in a furnace,” said Mr Akbar Ali, 52, a rickshaw driver who has transported many heat-struck people to the hospital in recent weeks. “It’s terrible seeing people collapse on the street.”

A port city on the Arabian Sea, Karachi is known for its hot summers and monsoon floods. Such extremes are particularly hard for the 60 per cent of residents who live in the city’s sprawling slums, where houses are shoddily made of concrete or tarps, and roads are unpaved.

But this summer has been particularly bad. In the stretch of intense heat from June 23 to 30, the city’s largest morgue received about three times as many bodies as it does on a typical day, according to the Edhi Foundation, a charity known for its extensive morgue operations and large ambulance fleet.

In all, the charity’s morgues received around 700 bodies in those eight days. Though the cause of death was not clear in every case, the timing was suggestive.

“This is a humanitarian crisis, but many heatwave-related deaths won’t be officially recorded as heat deaths,” said Assistant Professor Erum Haider, an academic at The College of Wooster who has studied Karachi’s civic challenges. “They often get classified under ‘fever’, ‘heart attack’ or ‘infant mortality’, which obscures the true impact.”

In recent weeks, blackouts in the slums have become frequent and prolonged, lasting from six to 16 hours a day. Without power, millions cannot use the electric fans that offer some relief (air-conditioning is rare). Frustration with the power cuts has prompted residents to regularly block major roads in protest.

The blackouts are “catastrophic for everyone in these neighbourhoods during a heatwave, but particularly for infants, the elderly and pregnant women”, Prof Haider said.

Water has also become scarce. Many neighbourhoods face severe water shortages, turning the lack of clean drinking water into a public health crisis.

In Karachi, a significant portion of the population relies on purchasing water in tanks from private companies, as the city’s water infrastructure fails to meet the needs of all its residents. During the summer, even areas that typically receive piped water are compelled to buy water because of shortages. Skyrocketing prices for tanks of water are adding to the burden of already struggling communities.

“The cost of water tanks has doubled or even tripled,” said Mr Mehmood Siddiqui, a private school teacher whose monthly salary is US$143 (S$193). “They’re now charging US$28 for a tank of water that cost US$14 just last month. It’s outrageous.”

Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients suffering from heatstroke and severe dehydration.

“Patients are reporting symptoms like high fever, weakness, gastroenteritis, vomiting and diarrhoea in numbers far exceeding normal,” said Ms Nasreen Gul, a nurse at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, the city’s largest state-run hospital.

Government officials have sought to play down reports of large-scale heatwave fatalities. Karachi Commissioner Hassan Naqvi, citing data from government hospitals, suggested that the number of deaths related to the heat was minimal.

Government officials have established cooling centres across the city. Charitable organisations are also providing some relief to residents, setting up roadside camps to offer water misting as well as glasses of cool water or Rooh Afza, a popular summer beverage in South Asia.

Rain on July 4 brought relief to Karachi after the midday temperature peaked at 40 deg C. But it highlighted the city’s vulnerability to the summer’s other major weather problem: devastating floods.

“We can pray for rain to cool the weather,” said Mr Ali Afzal, 44, a car mechanic in Karachi whose house was demolished in the July 2022 urban flooding caused by heavy rain. “But more rain poses another challenge, especially for city residents ill-prepared to handle it.” NYTIMES