- Title: Pakistan digs graves to prepare for heat wave deaths
- Date: 20th May 2016
- Summary: KARACHI, PAKISTAN (FILE- JUNE 25, 2015) (REUTERS) AMBULANCE ARRIVING HOSPITAL WORKER CARRYING HEAT STROKE PATIENT FROM AMBULANCE PATIENT ON STRETCHER HEAT STROKE PATIENT BEING MOVED IN HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 4th June 2016 07:55
- Keywords: Pakistan heat wave weather deaths morgue water drought
- Location: KARACHI, PAKISTAN
- City: KARACHI, PAKISTAN
- Country: Pakistan
- Topics: Droughts,Disaster/Accidents
- Reuters ID: LVA0064IM0XMT
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Grave diggers are hard at work in Karachi, Pakistan, in preparation for an impending heat wave.
The one last summer killed more than 1,300 people, and graves could not be dug quickly enough to bury fast-decaying corpses.
This year, Shahid Baloch and his three brothers have prepared long trenches.
"Thank God, we are better prepared this year. God forbid that it happens again, but we have already dug graves to accommodate 300 bodies," said Baloch, 28, who works at the vast Karachi cemetery run by the charity Edhi Foundation.
When the heat wave unexpectedly hit in the summer of 2015, hospitals, morgues and graveyards in the port city of 20 million people were overwhelmed.
Temperatures sky-rocketed to 44 degrees Celsius (111 Fahrenheit), their highest since 1981, way above normal summer levels of around 37 degrees celsius (99 degrees Fahrenheit).
Intervention by the army and charity groups staved off an even bigger disaster but the crisis exposed Karachi's inability to deal with a heat wave that scientists say will become more common in the future.
Karachi Commissioner Asif Hyder Shah, in charge of government preparations, said the city learnt its lessons and was taking no chances.
"This time we have 56 tertiary care hospitals spread across Karachi with in-house patient-handling, I think, capacity of about 1850 (heat wave patients)," he said.
The local government has also set up water stations around the city to help residents keep cool.
"It is very hot. People are feeling dizzy. This arrangement is very good, it will be even better if these water stalls are set up in three or four more places in this area. This is a commendable step by the government," said 55-year old labourer Mohammad Naeem.
But efforts to brace for extreme heat can only go so far as decades of under-investment in Pakistan's crumbling electricity grid and water infrastructure have left the city vulnerable in a time of crisis.
The chaos last year was compounded by power cuts that left people unable to cool themselves with fans and air conditioners.
It was a nightmare for the poor who were unable to afford generators. Those in shoddily-constructed concrete houses with little ventilation on top floors said conditions were unbearable.
Last summer, patients slept on ward floors and long queues formed outside Karachi's main state hospitals at the peak of the heat wave.
Over a few days, about 650 heat wave bodies were brought to the Edhi morgue. It ran out of freezer space for corpses rotting in the sweltering heat.
Edhi Foundation, at the heart of efforts to combat the heat wave last year, said it was expanding its huge fleet of ambulances.
It is also preparing extra shelves in its morgue freezer and buying ice machines to keep patients and corpses cool.
"We have taken a couple of measures because last year when we were facing the heat stroke, it was all sudden, and everything was on ad hoc, and now we are a little bit prepared if something happens we can counter those problems in a better manner," said Faisal Edhi, director of the Edhi Foundation.
Pakistan meteorological office, criticised for failing to forecast last year's disaster, has said it was unlikely last year's extreme conditions would be repeated in 2016.
Authorities are also in talks with religious officials in case the heat wave happens during Ramadan, the fasting month. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None