Another heat wave may grip Karachi

KARACHI: It is feared that another heat wave may soon grip Karachi, as 37 more people lost their lives on Saturday and the death toll rose to above 1100 over the past week. Many people were still being admitted to hospitals for treatment.
With the drop in temperature over the last two days, the number of heat stroke patients has reduced drastically at various public and private hospitals in the city. But still at least 37 more deaths were reported from different public and private hospitals on Saturday. People had been admitted with complaints of heat stroke, dehydration and diarrhoea, health officials said.
The death toll due to heat stroke and heat-related illnesses this week crossed the 1,122 figure while some health officials claimed that the death toll could have hit more than 1,300 as many private hospitals, clinics and health facilities did not share the exact number of deaths.
Pakistan Meteorological Department officials said although the weather had turned less extreme since Thursday night in Karachi, weather conditions could become harsh again in the days to come due to an expected halt in the South Westerly winds on Sunday and Monday. Temperature could cross the 40 degrees Celsius mark in the coming days.
The electricity situation remained the same in Karachi on Saturday as many areas of the city remained without power after a grid station in F B Area caught fire causing power breakdowns in many areas of District Central where over 50 feeders were affected.
A water shortage and the resulting protests by enraged people were also reported from different parts of the city although water to Karachiites resumed from Hub Dam, which received water from its catchment areasdifferent parts of the city although water to Karachiites resumed from Hub Dam, which received water from its catchment areas after rains in Balochistan and authorities said they were supplying 24 million gallons of water per day (MGD) to Karachi from Hub Water Reservoir since Friday.
The Edhi Foundation buried at least 25 unclaimed bodies at its Muach Goth graveyard after nobody came to claim those bodies, which were shifted to Edhi morgue from different city hospitals after their deaths due to current wave of heat related deaths, Edhi Foundation spokesman Anwar Kazmi said.
Collective funeral prayer of those 25 unclaimed bodies was offered by the Edhi foundation officials, volunteers and some passersby on Friday and later these bodies were shifted to Much Goth graveyard where they were buried in the mass graves, he added.
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre Joint Executive Director Dr Seemi Jamali said the total death toll at the JPMC wards and casualty department crossed the figure of 351 on Saturday as 13 more deaths were reported at the hospital since Friday night till Saturday evening.At least seven more patients undergoing treatment at different wards of Civil Hospital Karachi died on Saturday.
Abbasi Shaheed Hospital (ASH) and other Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) run hospitals also witnessed some 11 deaths of the patients, who had been brought to these health facilities from different areas of the city and died during treatment at the health facilities, KMC health officials confirmed.
Two more deaths were reported from Qatar Hospital in Orangi Town while one patient died at government hospital in Korangi, health officials said, adding that still hundreds of patients were being given treatment at these hospitals on Saturday.
Our Nawabshah correspondent adds: Nawabshah and its surroundings are in the grip of severe heatwave forcing people to remain indoors.A large number of heat stroke patients were brought to the People’s Medical Hospital and private medical centres for treatment.Meanwhile, Wapda is carrying out frequent unannounced loadshedding.