Pakistan can expect worse heatwaves in the future, say experts
The heatwaves also affect farming negatively, with cows giving less milk and lack of water for crop irrigation.
Farming has been badly affected, with cows giving less milk and not enough water for some crops. PHOTO: FILE
In the third major heatwave in four years, Pakistan’s climbing temperatures have destroyed crops and claimed the lives of many. Temperatures on Friday dipped to under 38C (100F) and signaled the end of a nearly four-week long heatwave, however according to leading meteorologists, the country could expect longer, more intense events in the future, reported The Guardian.
One of the reasons put forward by expert Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, a vice-president of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and former director of Pakistan's Met Office, is climatic warming.
"If we look at the frequency and the trend of the extreme weather events impacting Pakistan then it is easy to find its link with climate change," he said.
Chaudhry wrote Pakistan’s climate change police and authored a report on the number of heatwaves in Pakistan in 2013. According to his report, the number of heatwaves across the country had increased from 1980 to 2009, and that average temperature in the Indus Delta was “steadily rising”.
In 2010, the May temperature in Mohenjodaro in Sindh, reached 53.5C (128F), the fourth highest temperature ever recorded in the world and the highest ever in Asia.
With the monsoon season around the corner, experts fear a rise in diseases related to heat, dehydration, and contaminated water.
Iqbal Memon, president of the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) said, "The rise in vector-borne diseases including diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, typhoid and hepatitis is due to environmental factors and the effects of climate change."
The heatwaves also affect farming negatively, with cows giving less milk and lack of water for crop irrigation.
“The heat actually helped the cotton crop because it came when it was flowering and it quickly turned into fruit," said Mustafa Talpur of Oxfam in Islamabad. "But it badly hit the sugarcane, rice and chilli crops. The lack of irrigation water has affected the yield, but the exact impact wont be known until the harvest is over."
Rural areas have seen less of heat menace compared to urban cities, due to what is known as as the “heat island effect”. Loadshedding added to the misery of urban residents as many families were unable to pump water or run air conditioners to beat the heat.
Pakistan, like neighbouring Bangladesh, is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and has experienced massive flooding, heat waves and droughts in the past.
One of the reasons put forward by expert Qamaruz Zaman Chaudhry, a vice-president of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and former director of Pakistan's Met Office, is climatic warming.
"If we look at the frequency and the trend of the extreme weather events impacting Pakistan then it is easy to find its link with climate change," he said.
Chaudhry wrote Pakistan’s climate change police and authored a report on the number of heatwaves in Pakistan in 2013. According to his report, the number of heatwaves across the country had increased from 1980 to 2009, and that average temperature in the Indus Delta was “steadily rising”.
In 2010, the May temperature in Mohenjodaro in Sindh, reached 53.5C (128F), the fourth highest temperature ever recorded in the world and the highest ever in Asia.
With the monsoon season around the corner, experts fear a rise in diseases related to heat, dehydration, and contaminated water.
Iqbal Memon, president of the Pakistan Paediatric Association (PPA) said, "The rise in vector-borne diseases including diarrhoea, cholera, gastroenteritis, typhoid and hepatitis is due to environmental factors and the effects of climate change."
The heatwaves also affect farming negatively, with cows giving less milk and lack of water for crop irrigation.
“The heat actually helped the cotton crop because it came when it was flowering and it quickly turned into fruit," said Mustafa Talpur of Oxfam in Islamabad. "But it badly hit the sugarcane, rice and chilli crops. The lack of irrigation water has affected the yield, but the exact impact wont be known until the harvest is over."
Rural areas have seen less of heat menace compared to urban cities, due to what is known as as the “heat island effect”. Loadshedding added to the misery of urban residents as many families were unable to pump water or run air conditioners to beat the heat.
Pakistan, like neighbouring Bangladesh, is highly vulnerable to natural disasters and has experienced massive flooding, heat waves and droughts in the past.