KARACHI: Visiting an ice factory is like touring inside a huge freezer. There you are surrounded by water sprinklers and huge slabs and blocks of ice. There is dry ice fog forming at your feet as you pull up your collar and fold your arms in the nippy environment, wishing you had brought a jacket or cardigan with you. It may be 35 degrees Celsius outside but here you are enjoying North Pole weather!

Still, the folks who work in ice factories and plants are dressed normally as they handle huge blocks frozen solid. They say they are quite used to it. They are all barefooted, too, and they also make you take off your shoes and socks in order to maintain hygiene inside the plant. Underneath the wooden floorboards are hundreds of slabs frozen solid. The boards are removed whenever a donkey cart or pick-up truck arrives to buy and carry off the ice.

This happens in summer mostly. In winter most of the ice factories in the city close operations. Those that still work mostly supply to the fisheries. “We do most of our business in summer. There are around 900 ice factories in Karachi, of which some 600 are situated in Korangi and Landhi,” says Abdur Raqeeb, a worker at one such factory in the Korangi Industrial Area. “Most of the plants at these factories also remain idle during the day as working in the small hours suits us better. Then we also have uninterrupted supply of electricity. Supplying is also easier in cooler weather outside.”

The ice factories can be identified from afar with their network of pipes showering in water. If you haven’t visited inside these factories, you may think the ice is being made from this water. Actually this water is being sprayed through a sprinkler system for cooling the pipes that carry ammonia for freezing water. “The compressors keep running until the ice is set in the brine tanks underneath the floor boards. We have a good idea of how much ice we will sell during the day and that is how much we set. If we become overambitious and make more, our efforts and the electricity we use will be wasted if the ice doesn’t sell as it will all melt,” says Amal Jan Afridi, another worker at another ice factory, which has its plants running during the day.

“The compressor has a timer with an automatic switch, just like the compressor in your refrigerator or air conditioner,” Afridi explains. “Earlier, we used to import ice plants from abroad. Those used to be second hand and fixing and maintaining them would prove quite costly. Thankfully, now we have our own plants that are made in Punjab. They run well. Besides, all their parts are also available locally. During the two or three months in winter when we shut the factory, we carry out necessary repairs. We can utilise the time for overhauling the system as well.”

A customer arrives with a pickup for transporting the ice blocks to his cold drink depot. He buys a slab for Rs280. At his depot he breaks it up into smaller parts to sell each part for Rs75 to Rs100 each. That’s not making hay under the sun; it is selling ice and making good profit in the heat.

The customer covers the ice with blankets or gunny bags to protect it from melting in the sun. Another arrives on a donkey cart but the two slabs he buys he only ties up with a rope to keep them from falling off. “I only have a short distance to travel. At minus 40 degrees, these blocks are frozen solid. They don’t melt that easily,” the man laughs before pulling on the reins and trotting away.

Published in Dawn, May 8th, 2016