KARACHI: Karachi is wilting in a four-day heat wave that has killed more than 780 people, Edhi said on Wednesday, as the government declared a holiday in the city to encourage people to stay home and cool off.
The heat wave has coincided with severe electricity cuts and the holy month of Ramazan, when most Muslims do not eat or drink during daylight hours.
Many of the deaths, among the elderly and poor in Karachi, were caused by dehydration.
“The heat wave death toll has reached close to the 800 mark in the last four days,” Anwar Kazmi, a senior official of the private charity, the Edhi Foundation, told Reuters.
“We are planning to expand the Edhi morgue to cope with a situation like this in future.”
The charity runs a network of ambulances, clinics and morgues to bridge the gaps in an overburdened and poorly funded by public health system in the city of 20 million people, home to Pakistan’s main stock market, central bank and biggest port.
Government health officials did not return calls seeking comment.
A sea breeze slightly cooled parts of the city on Wednesday but rains predicted by weather officials did not arrive.
Many residents are furious with the civilian government over the electricity cuts and the poor state of the public hospitals treating many of those who have fainted from the heat.
Public services in Pakistan are starved of resources because almost all its wealthy evade taxes. Fewer than 0.5 per cent of citizens pay income tax; many legislators are among the tax dodgers.
The army has set up 22 health centres where it also hands out water and rehydration salts.
Grave statistics
The government is yet to collect and collate the exact death toll in four days, but the management of different hospitals around the city have reported the following figures: 260 people were either brought dead to or died during treatment at the JPMC, 112 at Karachi Metropolitan Corporation-run hospitals (including the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital), 93 at the Civil Hospital Karachi, 62 at the Liaquat National Hospital, 40 at the Indus Hospital, 37 at the Ziauddin Hospital (Clifton, North Nazimabad and Keamari), 32 at the Sindh Government Qatar Hospital Orangi, 20 each at the Aga Khan University Hospital and the Lyari General Hospital, 15 at the Sindh Government Hospital New Karachi, six at the Sindh Government Hospital Liaquatabad, three at the Sindh Government Hospital Malir and two at the Sindh Government Hospital Korangi.
Meanwhile, a total of 18 sunstroke-related deaths have been reported from six Hyderabad districts. Most of the victims were the elderly. Six people ranging between the ages of 55 and 70 years were reported dead in the last 24 hours alone.
Five deaths have been reported from Tando Allahyar, while two minors were among three people who fell victim to the heatwave in Thatta. Two people have been reported dead in Badin, while one death each was reported from Jamshoro and Sujawal.
The heatwave has also claimed three lives in different parts of upper Sindh, where a large number of people, especially the elderly and children, have been afflicted with gastroenteritis.
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