Searing heat wave in Peshawar

PESHAWAR: A searing heat wave across Peshawar brought further agony to the people who are already reeling under prolonged power outages, residents said on Monday.

There was no respite in temperature on Monday with Sunday’s 42 degrees Celsius high continuing into the new day. Though the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) has announced seven hours of power cuts for urban areas, people say this was not being followed. Power fluctuations too were a norm. Locals also claimed that the duration of power outages had increased.

“Prior to the recent heat wave, power used to go out for two hours at night, an hour in the morning and another hour later in the day. Since last week, there is no power for an hour each in the morning, evening and night with two additional spells of outage later at night,” Momin Khan, a resident of Gulberg area, told The Express Tribune.

Khan also said that he was unable to purchase ice as most shopkeepers finished their stock early in the day. He said that the vendors were taking advantage of the situation by raising the price of ice.

Sharifur Rahman, a resident of Afghan Colony, said that he was forced to stay up all night as there was no power in the late hours and the heat and humidity were unbearable.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 20^th, 2010.