ASIA/PAKISTAN - A thousand victims in five days due to heatwave

Karachi (Agenzia Fides) - Following the wave of scorching heat that is hitting Karachi, the largest city of Pakistan where there are 23 million people, 950 people have died in just five days. The morgues are not enough to accommodate all the bodies that keep coming and hospitals are completely full. The phenomenon is the worst in the last 50 years. Although the heat covers the entire southern province of Sindh, where 1,100 people have been killed, the capital remains the most affected, and the majority of deaths are recorded among the poor.
According to the Country's main humanitarian organization, the Edhi Foundation, 50% of the dead were gathered in the street and they are highly likely to be beggars, drug addicts and young workers. Hospitals are under pressure for having to accommodate about 40,000 people across the province hit by sunstroke and dehydration. According to the health authorities of the main Civil Hospital in Karachi, the center is working only in cases of emergency. The NGOs argue that there are tens of thousands of people who live and work in the street among beggars, street vendors and manual workers. Over 62% of the population in Karachi lives in informal settlements with a density of nearly 6,000 people per square kilometer.
Many are deprived of basic services such as water and electricity. Richer households may resort to generators, but about 91 million people live on less than $ 2 a day. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 30/06/2015)