Tragedy in Sehwan
Local administration should have planned ahead in terms of making essentials available for devotees attending the urs.
Mass political rallies tend to be centrally organised and usually make, at least, basic provision for emergency medical care and water, but mass gatherings at religious sites have nothing beyond the zeal of the individual pilgrims to sustain them. PHOTO: APP
A quiet, and largely avoidable, tragedy is unfolding in Sehwan. Pilgrims to the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar may number as many as 600,000 and significant numbers of them are dying of heatstroke. By the evening of June 18, 2014 there were 53 dead, with at least 12 dying on June 17 alone. Daytime temperatures in the area are topping at 47c and local medical services are overwhelmed with casualties. The Edhi ambulance service is reported to be holding 17 unidentified bodies, and with the extreme heat set to last at least another week it may be expected that there will be more tragedies.
The majority of those that have died were staying in tented encampments with little or no access to sufficient freshwater or sanitation, and given the vast numbers of people attracted to the site at the height of summer, deaths were virtually inevitable — but not in these numbers. Investigations by a private TV channel reveal that no arrangements were made for the provision of water. To be fair to the local administration, the numbers of people in attendance would stretch any administration to breaking point. Those arriving do so independently, primarily from across Sindh and Punjab, and there is no central organisation that has any overall responsibility for the event, which to all intents and purposes is completely unregulated. That said, the event was known of well in advance and the local administration should have planned ahead in terms of making the essentials available — with water being the primary provision. The medical superintendent of the Sehwan taluka hospital said that all bar one of the deaths were caused by heatstroke, a symptom of which is dehydration. Mass political rallies tend to be centrally organised and usually make, at least, basic provision for emergency medical care and water, but mass gatherings at religious sites have nothing beyond the zeal of the individual pilgrims to sustain them. At the very least get water to these people — and fast.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2014.
The majority of those that have died were staying in tented encampments with little or no access to sufficient freshwater or sanitation, and given the vast numbers of people attracted to the site at the height of summer, deaths were virtually inevitable — but not in these numbers. Investigations by a private TV channel reveal that no arrangements were made for the provision of water. To be fair to the local administration, the numbers of people in attendance would stretch any administration to breaking point. Those arriving do so independently, primarily from across Sindh and Punjab, and there is no central organisation that has any overall responsibility for the event, which to all intents and purposes is completely unregulated. That said, the event was known of well in advance and the local administration should have planned ahead in terms of making the essentials available — with water being the primary provision. The medical superintendent of the Sehwan taluka hospital said that all bar one of the deaths were caused by heatstroke, a symptom of which is dehydration. Mass political rallies tend to be centrally organised and usually make, at least, basic provision for emergency medical care and water, but mass gatherings at religious sites have nothing beyond the zeal of the individual pilgrims to sustain them. At the very least get water to these people — and fast.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 20th, 2014.