ABDULLAH ZAFAR
KARACHI - Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) on Friday issued an alert to all the concerned government departments to be prepared for another heatwave in the city before Eidul Fitr.
The metrological department had contradicted with the PDMA’s announcement of heatwave, saying the temperature in the metropolis would remain normal with winds blowing from the sea. Talking to The Nation, PDMA Director General Salman Shah said they had issued directives to all the heatstroke related departments to prepare themselves for another heatwave. Awareness could also be created among the people as how they could avoid it. “We had received the weather forecast of 40 degree centigrade in the metropolis by July 17 and ahead. If added with low wind pressure, it can create problems for the citizens,” he said.
It is pertinent to mention here that the PDMA has failed to set up its camps for the relief of heatstroke patients in the metropolis on time and when the death toll reached up to 1,000 deaths, it announced to establish camps outside the major government hospitals.
However, despite of it no active participation of the government authority was seen during the heatwave and now when the situation had calmed down, the PDMA’s announcement for another heatwave without any prior consultation with the Met officials had created suspicions of some wrongdoings in the department. The Chief Meteorologist of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Naeem Shah contradicted with the PDMA chief weather forecast, saying he had misunderstanding regarding any heatwave in the metropolis again.
“The temperature up to July 20 will vary between 33 to 34 degree centigrade with winds blowing from sea to the city which will further minimize the effect of temperature,” he said. He said they had not issued any such weather forecast and do not know as to where the forecast was received.
Furthermore, the government hospitals, that are responsible for dealing with the heatstroke patients during the heatwave, have not yet received any such directions to be prepared for any emergency from July 17.
Talking to The Nation, medical superintendent of the Civil Hospital, Dr Saeed said they had yet not received any such orders but despite of it they were ready to tackle any situation of heat wave. “We have no patients left in our hospital that were affected from heatwave but we have completed our preparations for tackling any such situation in future,” he said.