Heatwave death toll in Sindh tops 1,000
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KARACHI: While the punishing heatwave gripping Karachi since Saturday showed signs of subsiding, the death toll across Sindh rose to 1,011, with at least 229 fatalities reported on Wednesday by government and private hospitals.
Wednesday’s figures included the five-day tally of 23 deaths reported by a private hospital which had not released it earlier.
Officials said that about 40,000 people had suffered heatstroke and as many as 7,500 of them were treated in Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC), where 311 people died.
“More than 1,000 of the 40,000 heatstroke victims have died since Saturday evening, of which 950 deaths were reported in Karachi alone,” said a senior official.
According to the figures collected from various hospitals, of the 950 deaths in Karachi, 729 were recorded in government-run health facilities and 221 in private hospitals.
The officials said the number of patients arriving in hospitals had ‘significantly’ dropped with the weather getting better, yet there were thousands of patients being treated in different health facilities.
The gravity of the situation could be gauged from the fact that only Abbasi Shaheed Hospital and other hospitals run by the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation treated 17,382 patients till Wednesday evening. Of them, 207 died since Saturday.
The officials said 15 people died in Hyderabad, two in Naushahro Feroze and five in Badin, bringing the five-day tally to 61 recorded in other districts of Sindh.
Meanwhile, moving scenes were witnessed in hospitals across the city where relatives were seen crying with ambulances arriving one after another.
People, youths in particular, continued to donate medicines, juices and bottled water to patients as well as hospitals.
WEATHER: The hot and humid weather got milder and a change of wind pattern brought some respite from the suffocating heat. After almost a week, the maximum temperature dropped to 37 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature was 30.5 degrees Celsius, with humidity — a measure of the amount of moisture in the air — 63 per cent.
The Met Office said the maximum temperature was expected to remain between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday.
Hyderabad was the hottest place in the province on Wednesday as the maximum temperature was recorded at 42 degrees Celsius there.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2015
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Jun 25, 2015 06:34am
I feel so sorry for these poor people for having died this way in their country. They never had a chance. I am waiting for some government official to step forward and resign.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:39am
Pakistan is on a path to a revolution that will shake the world up. You know that such incompetencies cannot keep on lingering on. We have reached the end of the road.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:39am
why dont you guys learn from India?
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Jun 25, 2015 07:09am
Shame on sind and central govt. We have nuclear bomb to defend the country but not Pakistani citizens. Land is nothing if people do not live there.
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Jun 25, 2015 07:25am
Sad to see this news daily. Please save the innocent lives!
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Jun 25, 2015 07:26am
@Blue Saffron We thought that almost a decade ago but still people voted for the same crooks.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:17am
I live in the UAE, last week temperature in some parts of UAE was more that 50 degrees and absolutely no casualties. People were fasting and work is going on. The issue is infrastructure not heat.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:43am
Well, thankfully those NGOs are gone.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:49am
Feel sorry but our government does not capability to deal with this situation.
All they can is play political games.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:57am
Govt has not fulfilled its responsibility but one would expect by now people would be taking a bit more care when they went out in the sun.
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Jun 25, 2015 09:33am
SAD. But had it happened in India our western neighbors would have mocked us really badly.
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Jun 25, 2015 09:43am
Pakistanis are facing the most difficult time since independence. Due to huge corruption,jobless numbers increasing,purchasing power diminishing the majority of people dying nowadays are due to malnourishment and poor health facilities.Karachi heatwave is one example.Despite our long claims we are going to perish if corruption is not stopped.Who will stop it?
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Jun 25, 2015 10:02am
PPP is not capable of running even a village let alone a huge province like Sindh. Please stop voting these incompetent bunch.
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Jun 25, 2015 10:10am
Babies dieing in Thar, over 1000 killed in heat wave and many more by political gangs...while Sindh corruption tops the whole budjet of Balochistan.
Mean while Zardari and his sister (who is under investigation) have left for Dubai. What great leaders Sindh have!!
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Jun 25, 2015 10:39am
guys
please note Abid sher ali is not responsible for this
and the effing CM did a dharna today for this same issue
I cannot believe this is happening
A CM doing a dharna !!!!!!!
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Jun 25, 2015 10:54am
Heart goes to people who died in karachi in Ramzan. People should not fast during heatwave as it becomes vulnerable to get more heat stroke. Please do no fast and have lots of water. if you want to fast then do it but do drink water, liquid , lemon etc to get yourself protected.
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Jun 25, 2015 11:20am
Tragic loss of precious lives. Many could have been saved had authorities swiftly responded to the increasing seriousness of the situations !! Time and again events show us how unprepared we are to face natural calamities. Heat wave now (God Forbid)floods a little later !
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Jun 25, 2015 11:21am
I SINCERELY HOPE THAT CONCERNED AUTHORITIES AND MEDICAL RESEARCHERS HAVE TAKEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO COLLECT NECESSARY BLOOD SAMPLES TO COMPILE DATA IN ORDER TO INVESTIGATE THE CAUSES AS TO WHY SO MANY PEOPLE BECAME VICTIMS....WAS IT THAT THEY WERE SUFFERING FROM A PARTICULAR DISEASES [HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE, HIGH CHOLESTEROL OR OTHERS] OR A DEFICIENCY OF SOME ESSENTIAL VITAMIN ETC
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Jun 25, 2015 12:04pm
Sindh Government is useless.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:06pm
Where are the claimant of Karachi now?? and what are they doing during this catastrophic time?? Recently, during elections, we saw IK and Co., ANP, MQM, NS, PPP, Jamat-e-Islami etc... were fighting with each other to claim the Karachi but what are they doing for Karachi's people now? or they just wanted to reap the fruitful perks of Karachi without any serious efforts to save Karachi?
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Jun 25, 2015 12:10pm
India's toll was nearly 2000 during heat wave which happened one month back.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:33pm
I think we(India & Pakistan) need to again start age old practice of Pihau(few pots with water kept by common man for public use), Pihau was highly appreciated by society as it was a Nobel cause. Pihau were found in the remotest area also. Some pihau's were manned also and it was for free. We should not just wait for government action we as an society has also some responsibility.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:46pm
@NY : How right you are! My family has started using the cooling pot over the last 1 year and this summer is almost gone with just abt 5 litres of cool drinks being purchased . Last summer it was atleast a 1.2 ltr a day for more than 45 days.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:46pm
@mkdkano Not sure how true is your figure but even if its true, India has 1.2Billion and Pak 180 Million, ratio is quite high in Pakistan. Just is one city (Karachi) over 900 died and hospitals are still full people. Some hospitals have permanent sign posted they dont have any space.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:50pm
Its incredible that people of Pakistan just keep taking everything that comes their way, may it be bullets, bombs, looters or heat wave without infrastructure. There are countries in the world with much severe climates but not many people die. The administration has failed. News channels talk about antics of politicians, couldn't they announce constantly on all channels that please stay indoors or under shades, drink lots of water, fire department should use their trucks and create mist clouds across the city.
Sad really sad.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:51pm
Tragic, major heatwave issue in south India was high income of lower class, back home HYD India, our domestic worker family income is r.s60,000/month (about rs.90 thousands/m in Pak) and they have ACs in two rooms in their home, they keep it for 20c, when they come out of home they face 46C, body doesn't cope with high fluctuation. Money with ignorance is not good. May be the same issue in Pak? people acclimatised too much with Air Conditions. You can see Bihar and UP will never hit that badly, poor people over there are still living in mud houses.
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Jun 25, 2015 01:54pm
Issue here is not what government is doing or not. We south Asians have this tendency to expect the government to do everything. Government is to govern, it is the citizens duty to take care of themselves.
Yes I feel very sad for the loss of lives in our regions due to heat. But this just shows how little respect we have for life over here. Our citizens vote for politicians who make promises about the stature of our nations in the world, but it is the citizens duty to remind the government to first work for the people and then for the land the people live in.
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Jun 25, 2015 02:16pm
I really feel very bad for all those who suffered from heatstroke. We should now repent for all our sins before it's too late
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Jun 25, 2015 02:20pm
This is no time for the blame game. Anyone who is touched by this tragedy should seriously think what he/she can do to help with the situation. Buying a water cooler, a pedestal fan, donations to the hospital, an ambulance for the Edhi trust, a crate of bottled water to the hospitals, some shelter in your backyard, a box or bottle of ORS (oral rehydration salts) will go a long way.
Your one bottle of juice or water or your financial support to the needy can save lives. Ask yourself what can you do over the next 24 hours to save a life? Action is more likely to save a life than mere words!
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Jun 25, 2015 02:33pm
I'm a regular reader of Dawn.com and a frequent commenter too. With all sympathies to the families who have lost their near and dear ones in this tragedy, I bring to the kind notice of few commentators who ridiculed India when 1300 lives were lost due to heat wave in India (someone said "people won't die of heat in Pakistan"). I don't see their comments in this section today.
My humble advise to them: India is 7 times bigger and lost 1300, Pakistan has already lost 1000+. Let's wait and watch, where you'll end up. Come next summer, we will be more prepared to tackle this situation and minimise casualty. I challenge, can you say the same????
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Jun 25, 2015 04:35pm
Wake up SC. Wake up so called stakeholders.
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Jun 25, 2015 04:51pm
People should rethink theier vote behaviour don't elect
corrupt
slaveholders.
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Jun 25, 2015 04:59pm
Can't we just blame India for this too?
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Jun 25, 2015 05:19pm
As a life saving measure for the general public, there should be a total ban on the use of air conditioners except in hospitals, laboratories, and operational areas of defence and civil aviation. The ban should stay until every electric consumer, national wide, can be provided enough power to run 2 light bulbs and 2 fans round the clock without any interruption or load shedding.
Particularly no AC should be used in the national and provincial assemblies so that the honourable members can feel the pain of those dying due to heat.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:44pm
Women clad in Burka even in such scorching heat..I feel sorry for them.
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Jun 25, 2015 06:57pm
My deepest thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of the deceased. I hope those suffering get through this difficult period safe and sound.
Ali Khan
Digital Engagement Team, USCENTCOM
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Jun 25, 2015 07:43pm
I propose to Oxford Dictionary to remove the word Incompetent and replace it with Qaim Ali Shah.
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Jun 25, 2015 08:44pm
@mkdkano India has 29 states,all together 2000,however,1 province in Pakistan over 1000.
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Jun 25, 2015 09:28pm
My city Nagpur in India during peak summer the temperature goes to about 47 / 48 degrees C but such thing never happen - I doubt there might be some other reason for these deaths - May the souls RIP.
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Jun 25, 2015 11:34pm
is it time to purchase a few more submarines and other useless things that server absolutely no purpose whatsoever for the masses...
Maybe buy an aircraft carrier too India has one or two maybe she should buy 3 that will fix the load shedding issues
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Jun 26, 2015 01:51am
Out of curiosity, will any agency determine just how many perished from heatstroke complications due to FASTING avoidance of water?????
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Jun 26, 2015 04:21pm
sudden suffocation ----other reasons should be considered such as poisonous gas . There may be a need of postmortem of some dead bodies especially young one those can well tolerate the heat waves
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Jun 26, 2015 04:25pm
Other reasons should be considered also. Environmental poisoning/ old cannot tolerate heat but why young one are also suffered badly
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