A young boy cools himself off with a bucket of water on a hot day in Karachi. PHOTO: ATHAR KHAN/ EXPRESS
This spell of hot weather is likely to continue for the next few days due to the suspension of sea breeze. "44°C is the highest temperature recorded this year so far in Karachi and was recorded earlier this month," Abbas said.
He said that that dry air led to an increase in temperature at 3pm on Sunday, while humidity remained as low as 7%. Earlier in the day, at 1pm, the temperature was recorded at 42°C.
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"Thanks to the decline in humidity, the heat index was at 41˚C," he said, explaining that the index is what people experience, while the actual temperature may sometimes vary.
On Saturday, due to the absence of south-western winds at sea, the hot and humid winds of the north-west prevailed throughout the day. However, the lower humidity level - levels only reached 13% - prevented a heatwave-like situation from hitting the city.
The highest temperature recorded in the province was in the bordering town of Thar where the temperature was recorded at 46.6°C on Sunday. In Mithi, the highest temperature recorded was 45°C, 43°C in Nawabshah and Mohen Jo Daro, 42°C in Dadu and 41.5°C in Sukkur.
Water crisis
As temperatures soar, water is fast becoming scarce in the city and several protests were held against the water crisis Sunday morning.
Residents of Korangi blocked the flyover connecting Shah Faisal with Korangi Industrial Area over the Malir River late Saturday night. The area has not received a drop of water for the last week. "We don't know when our water tanks will get water again," said an elderly man in protest.
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"They are all fraudsters. They have no shame. They are doing all this in Ramazan," he lamented.
The situation becomes even more unbearable as the Muslim majority population fasts during Ramazan and has to eat sehri and iftar in the dark and do wuzu when there is no water.
The people of North Nazimabad, North Karachi and SITE also protested against water shortage late Saturday night, saying that the area has been deprived of water for the past 20 days.
The residents of North Karachi protested outside the deputy commissioner's office at Sakhi Hasan and blocked the road. "We form long queues at water hydrants just to get a water tanker at our homes," Mohsin Hayyat, a resident of the area, said. "The online water tanker service initiated by the government was just a photo opportunity," he accused.
The Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (KWSB) initiated an online water tanker service ahead of Ramazan which failed miserably. The people are fed up and believe that water and power utilities could not care less about them. In these desperate times, people have come up with different ways of beating the heat. In SITE, people are making holes in the water board's pipelines and taking baths under the leaking water.
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"We don't have water at our homes," said one man. "We come here to cool off due to load-shedding." There is no better way to keep yourself cool while fasting, said another resident.
Later, the police reached the sites where the protests were taking place and assured the protesters that their demands would be met. The protesters dispersed by Sunday morning.
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