Monday 29 June 2015

Pakistan's heat wave

Pakistan heatwave death toll climbs past 1,200
About 65,000 heatstroke patients treated in Karachi hospitals during heatwave, with nearly 2,000 still being treated.


27 June, 2015

The death toll from the severe heatwave in southern Pakistan over the past week has climbed to 1,233, despite cooler temperatures bringing some relief to residents, officials said.

In Karachi, Pakistan's economic centre of around 20 million people, the temperature only reached 34C on Saturday, after touching 45C at the peak of the heatwave last week.

Nazar Mohammad Bozdar, operations director at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said on Saturday that 65,000 heatstroke patients were treated at the city's hospitals since June 20.

Bozdar told the AP news agency that 1,923 patients with heat-related ailments are still being treated.

The victims of the heatwave have died of heat stroke, dehydration or other heat-related illnesses - with the elderly and poor the worst-affected groups.

Heat deaths continue despite cooler weather in Pakistan

At the height of the crisis last week, Dr Seemin Jamali, a senior official at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), Karachi's largest government hospital, told Al Jazeera that the centre's mortuary was "overflowing".

"They are piling bodies one on top of the other," Jamali said at the time.

The heatwave struck Karachi at a time when the city's Muslim majority was observing the dawn-to-dusk fasting month of Ramadan, further worsening the situation.

Repeated power outrages across the province, and particularly in Karachi, exacerbated the situation. Some Karachi residents told Al Jazeera they were without electricity for more than 12 hours everyday, making it nearly impossible to find respite indoors.

1 comment:

  1. The temperatures of June are almost identical to May, with just a slight decrease. The highest temperature of June was 47 °C (117 °F), recorded on 18 June 1979, and the lowest was 22.1 °C (71.8 °F), recorded on 3 June 1997. On 6 June 2010, Cyclone Phet came close to the coast of Karachi as a tropical depression, at about 50 km away from the city after a week-long journey. About 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain with 35 mph (56 km/h) winds struck the city. 95 mm rainfall was recorded at the Airport observatory whereas 150 mm was recorded at Masroor Base.
    Karachi Weather Live

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