The heat wave

The thing I hate most about this city is the weather, said a visitor to Karachi the other day. Freshly arrived from the twin cities these remarks were in obvious reaction to the hot humid and almost unbearable heat that rules the city of Karachi these days. Ordinarily, the city has a hot humid atmosphere, which is at most times tolerable and when the sea wind dominates even pleasant; specially, in the evening but things have been different during the past few months since a heat wave has struck the city mercilessly dragging the heat late into the evening and at times even into the night, making it almost unbearable even for those who sleep on the pavements of this metropolitan city.

The ferocity of the heat wave can be adjudged by the fact that in the worst days in May there were 65 deaths in just 4 days and during the peak of this wave there were 10 deaths in just one day.

The rest of the Sindh province has also not done very well and there were 141 deaths across Sindh, of which 132 were in Karachi alone. Overall, in June, 6 to 10 deaths were reported with every wave of heat that struck the province and specially Karachi.

Some deaths go unreported because the victims are homeless, drug users with no near and dear ones to claim their bodies and register their deaths. The ferocity of this heat wave can be adjudged by the fact that in May the spike in heat was 44 degrees, which you can imagine was unbearable; specially, for the older people.

It seems that this year we are following the 2024 full summer toll in which 568 people lost their life and we are on our way to achieve that figure. I hope we have learned some lessons from our 2024 experience and will use that knowledge to prevent us from reaching that figure again.

So what do you do when you are surrounded by scorching weather? There is this one-point agenda that everyone from the top doctors to elderly people in the family recommends, and that is very simple: stay hydrated. How you do that is another ball game.

Keep water bottles in whatever transport you are using but this can only be done if you are the owner of the transport. A little difficult to hold on to water bottles if you are at the same time hanging on for dear life in a bus racing as if there is no tomorrow.

The other more workable solution is keeping your eyes open and getting a drink from the various stalls put up by welfare organisations in different parts of the city. This year many people would have been saved by the fact that due to the month of Muharram there have been water stalls all over the city dispensing not only water but other drinks as well which undoubtedly saved so many lives.

Many welfare organisations too followed their tradition of putting up water and sherbat stalls thus lending a hand in saving those exposed to this relentless heat.

Roadside vendors of drinks too are a source that can be used to remain hydrated. I am told that these roadside vendors are becoming quite progressive and most of them not only keep water but also pouches of ORS, which they sell at discounted prices. Not only the roadside vendors but the paan shop owners too are now well aware of the necessity of ORS and it is now available in most of the paan shops as well.

Karachi will somehow cope with the heat wave but the alarming thing is that with each passing year the intensity of such weather increases. Now it is heat waves but soon other natural disasters like hurricanes might find their way to our doorsteps with greater consequences with which it will be difficult for us to cope on our own.

Pakistan on many international forums has pointed out that we are paying the price of the indiscretion of others. Hopefully, our pleas will get some positive response and steps taken to save Pakistan from the threat of climate change.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026