In anticipation of a severe heatwave, over 1,000 camps have been established across Sindh, Pakistan’s southern province, according to disaster management officials on Tuesday.
The Pakistan Meteorological Department forecasts temperatures soaring as high as 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in rural parts of Sindh.
“These camps have been set up to provide relief to affected people, and to help reduce instances of heatstroke and other heat-related diseases,” said Ajay Kumar, assistant director of the Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA), in an interview with AFP.
“They are also equipped with places of rest, water, and glucose to give to people as and when these are needed,” he added.
The impending heatwave will impact much of the country in the coming week.
Pakistan often faces power supply deficits during extreme heat, with some regions enduring up to 15 hours of loadshedding per day, local media reports.
The country’s vulnerability to extreme weather events, attributed to climate change by scientists, continues to grow.
In response to the heatwave, schools in the province, including Karachi, a city of over 20 million people, have postponed annual examinations scheduled for this week.
PDMA Chief Meteorologist Sardar Sarfaraz highlighted that “women who spend most of their time in the kitchen and in the fields in rural areas are the hardest hit.”
Additionally, there are concerns about the survival of livestock due to the heatwave, Kumar added.
Read more: Pakistan’s Weekly SPI Drops by 1.06%
