ISLAMABAD, 9 May 2006 — At least 33 people died as a searing heat wave brought temperatures of nearly 47 degrees Celsius to central Pakistan, officials said yesterday.
The hot spell comes amid a warning from the country’s top meteorologist that Pakistan faces a possible drought with no significant rain expected in the next two months.
The capital Islamabad was hit by a dust storm yesterday while streets in the central city of Multan in Punjab province were deserted as the high temperatures kept residents indoors.
“We have received reports here that 31 people have died in the heat wave during last three days,” Amir Salman, a spokesman for Punjab’s Health Department, told AFP.
Health officials from a number of dustbowl districts in the south of the province gave a toll of 33. They said 17 died at the weekend and another 16 in the past 24 hours.
“We are receiving a number of heat-stricken people daily in the emergency ward,” said Laiq Hussain Siddiqui, a doctor at Multan’s Nishtar Hospital. Temperatures hit 46.8 degrees in the Bahawalnagar and Dera Ghazi Khan districts of Punjab and more hot and dry weather is forecast for the next two or three days, the Meteorological Department said.
Reservoirs in the country are drying up, temperatures are soaring and there is little chance of significant rain for at least the next few months, a top weather official said yesterday.
In some areas, taps have already run dry and people are worried about whether they will find enough water for their families.
“As I wake up, the first thing I worry about is getting water. I have to fetch water from other streets as the water tap in my street has dried up,” Mohammad Zafar, a resident of Tench Bhatta, a low-income neighborhood in Rawalpindi, said.
The wilting heat is adding to the nation’s misery. In Turbat, a town in Balochistan, temperatures reached 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) yesterday.
Pakistan relies heavily on winter rains and snow in the northern mountains to fill rivers and reservoirs to stock up for the long, hot dry months ahead of the July-September monsoon. “There is a likelihood of a severe water shortage in the coming months because of this drought,” Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, director-general of the Meteorological Department, told Reuters.
He said the country received 40 percent less than normal winter rains and up to 25 percent less snowfall. Water levels in major reservoirs were now critically low, he said.
Rawal Lake, the main source of water supply to Rawalpindi, a city of nearly two million people, has largely dried up.
Drought conditions already prevailed in the southwestern province of Balochistan and neighboring Sindh province, and Chaudhry expected other parts of Pakistan to be affected.
A severe drought between 1999 and 2002 affected Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan and India. Agriculture accounts for 24 percent of Pakistan’s gross domestic product and employs about 42 percent of its labor force.
“Right now, the situation is not very bad and the adverse impact of the drought could be minimized through proper planning,” Chaudhry said.
“At this stage, we don’t foresee any major impact on our agriculture sector ... but the situation could get out of hand if we don’t handle it properly,” he added.
Chaudhry said the next crop up for sowing in Pakistan is cotton, which does not require as much water as others. “We can save water for other crops by properly using it for cotton,” he added.
Apart from rainfall, Pakistan relies on irrigation water from two huge reservoirs, the Tarbela and Mangla dams.
