LARKANA: Several parts of Sindh came under the grip of intense heat wave on Tuesday with temperatures soaring up to 51 degrees Celsius in Larkana, followed by 50 degrees in Jacobabad, 49 in Sukkur, 48.2 in Dadu , 47 in Hyderabad and 46 in Ghotki.

Frequent and prolonged power outages along with water shortage made life further miserable for the residents. People took to streets in Hyderabad to protest over load-shedding. Roads were deserted as most people preferred to stay indoors to avoid the scorching weather.

Only one heat-related death took place in Sehwan while several woman and children fainted in Mirpurkhas. Government hospitals saw a spike in the number of patients particularly older people suffering from gastroenteritis and heat stroke.

According to the local met office in Larkana, the heat spell has been continuing since three days and it would continue to be like this for the next three to four days. The temperature was recorded at 50 degrees Celsius while wind direction remained in South-West with humidity at 35 percent at 8am and eight per cent in the evening, the met office added.

Power outages in Larkana city and Qambar-Shahdadkot town ranged from six hours to 18 hours and 20 hours in villages, said sources in Sukkur Electricity Power Supply Company.

The casualty department of Chandka Medical College hospital said it had seen nearly 70 patients of different age groups with complaints of nausea and diarrhea that are symptoms of gastroenteritis. They had also seen a couple of cases of heatstroke, said a supervisor adding that fortunately no death had been reported so far.

Solar panels vendor Muhammad Ali Shaikh said that in the last couple of days the sale of panels had increased due to non-availability of electricity in town and villages. However, poor villagers could only cool themselves with traditional hand-held fans.

HYDERABAD: In Hyderabad, mostly roads wore a deserted look as people preferred to stay indoors to avoid heat and hot breeze. Only those people were seen on the roads protesting as they were either badly affected by erratic power supply or prolonged long-shedding by Hesco A big protest was staged outside SSP office where residents of Shah Faisal Colony blamed Hesco for longer power outage. Power supply was later restored following the protest. Hesco spokesman said that it was an issue of burnt transformer due to illegal electricity connections.

People were also seen complaining about non-supply of water by Wasa for last several days while Wasa authorities attributed it to long duration of power cut to its filter plants as both sources of power supplies by Hesco remained without electricity.

“Once both feeders stop supplying electricity we are doomed as far as drinking water supply is concerned. Especially those are worst hit which are at tail-end of our system,” claimed a Wasa officer. Power utility spokesman denied that both sources of power supplies have identical load-shedding schedule.

Meanwhile, people adopted precautionary measures to cope with sizzling heat. Some preferred keeping a piece of onion in the pockets of their clothes and others covered their head with small wet towels. “Our elders have always told us to use onions as it is supposed to keep heat at bay,” said Abdul Majeed, a tailor from Khata Chowk area.

Vendors selling traditional drink such as lassi and a concoction with gur and black salt sold their wares in large numbers particularly to commuters and passers-by.

Only one heat related death of an unidentified 50-year-old-man was reported in Lal Shahabaz shrine, Sehwan.

SUKKUR: In Ghotki district temperatures ranged from 46 to 48 degrees Celsius. In villages of rural areas load-shedding was up to 22 hours and in urban areas it was up to 12 hours. Hospitals in Sukkur division saw a spike in the number of gastroenteritis complaints with most patients being children.

MIRPURKHAS: In Mirpurkhas district, many found the intense weather unbearable and fainted in several parts of the district. They were admitted to civil hospitals with complaints of dehydration, nausea and diarrohea.

Due to severe water shortage people were seen buying water either from shops or having it supplied to their homes through water tankers. Business activities in the district were suspended due to power outages that increased up to 16 hours.

Published in Dawn, May 18th, 2016