Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the health, local government and district administration all over Sindh to take concrete measures to avoid causalities during the forthcoming heat wave. “It is our responsibility to take all out efforts to save people from the forthcoming heat wave which had claimed lot of lives last year.”
He said this while presiding over a meeting regarding forthcoming heat wave, its impact and precautionary measures to avoid causalities here at the CM House on Tuesday.
He said that he was still feeling the pain of last year’s heat wave which had swallowed many lives.
“Still I remember last year on June 1, I was in Larkana when told that 56 people had died because of sever heat stroke – I could not believe it, he said and added that he was surprised to know that temperature in Karachi on that day was 42 while it was at 48 in Larkana. “It was unusual in Karachi – humidity was on the rise and wind speed was low therefore, it affected people badly,” he said.
The chief minister said that the health facilities available in the city and in other districts must be equipped with necessary gadgets and medicines. There is dire need to publicize the precautionary measures tremendously to enable the people to adopt necessary measures in case of emergency.
Commissioner Karachi Asif Hyder Shah said that heat wave affects badly between 12 noon to 4pm. He added that on the instructions of the chief minister he had held a number of meetings with K-electric authorities. They have up-gradation 58 feeders and installed 1100 new PMTs. In the city seven emergency centers to handle the breakdown have been set up at the officers of all Deputy Commissioners and one in the commissioner House. The KWSB has upgraded its Dhabeji pumping station. The KE has assured that there would be no load shedding on the pumping stations.
On the suggestion of the Commissioner, the chief minister directed local government department to disconnect power connection of all the billboards in their areas so that eight to 10 percent electricity could be saved for the citizens during heat wave season.
Principal Secretary to CM Almauddin Bullo floated the idea to arrange artificial rain during the heat wave season which would result in reduction of temperature considerably and would have positive impact on the overall weather in the city. However, the chair observed that the concerned departments should examine this idea keeping in view the environmental impact and applicability in the city.
The meeting was told that the Karachi administration has identified 1000 points such as petrol pumps, bus stands, roundabouts and market places where drinking water would be made available. The mapping of health facilities have also been done to facilitate ambulances to transport affected people in a minimum time.
