EPN visited a Pakistani village where children die from the heat – the area has been suffering from record highs for weeks

DADU Leaving Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, the landscape quickly turns into a desert. Inland, the humidity and sea breeze of the port city are far behind. When you get out of the car, dry air hits your face – just like someone blowing in with a hair dryer. This feels like +48 degrees.

The southeastern province of Sindh has suffered for weeks from record high temperatures – in the areas of Dadu, Jacobabad and Nawabshah, readings have repeatedly risen to 50 degrees. Heat is beginning to be dangerous for the human body, experts say.

My three children have died of heat and diarrhea.

30-year-old Marvi

Temperatures could be tolerable if there were enough sheltered places or electricity to run the fans. Or even running water to cool the body.

There is none of this here in Dadu County, a village called Shah Hasan on the edge of the polluted Lake Manchar.

People live in small reedbeds in the middle of the sand. The midday sun roars relentlessly from the sky as women and children dressed in colorful clothes flock around a small platform car.

The man, wearing a white tunic-like salwar kamiz, steps down from the cab and steps towards the stage. Large pieces of ice are exposed under the blue tarpaulin. The man beats them into smaller blocks with a large spike.

The women take the pieces of ice to their homes and put them in plastic canisters. This is the only way to get the water cooled in the absence of refrigerators.

One of the women Allah Wasaitells them that they most often have to drink hot water.

Water is not readily available in the village and needs to be regulated. A small water pipe has been led to Shah Hasan, but water comes from there only occasionally.

Today, water comes under low pressure. The women squat around the underground pipe with yellow canisters. However, the water is not cold or as such potable.

30 year old Marvi pours water on his toddler in his reed cabin.

– My three children have died of heat and diarrhea, he says.

There are no hospitals nearby.

Water tankers roaming the villages do visit here too, but Marvi says her family can’t afford to buy clean drinking water from them. Even on good days, her husband earns only about a euro.

The locals belong to a small fishing community. The water in the lake has long since been polluted by emissions from nearby factories and is not potable.

Every year the heat gets worse.

Liaqat Ali, fisherman

There are a few small boats on the beach. Large white pelicans float near the reeds. One of the birds is dead.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered the water of the lake, which had become toxic, to be cleaned seven years ago. However, nothing has happened.

The village community has tossed a toilet on the lake’s waterfront – a few fabrics hung on a stick.

Still, the kids play right next to it in the dirty water, splashing it on top of each other and diving into the drowning.

Azizullah has worked as a fisherman on the lake for 15 years.

– In the past, there was a lot of fish here, but our industry has suffered badly due to pollution, he says.

Today, only one species of fish survives in the water.

There are only a few small sinks in Azizullah’s boat – it’s the catch of a fisherman’s day. The clock is starting to approach two in the afternoon. It’s time to move into the shade, as the afternoon sun can be deadly.

Sometimes fishermen never get back from the lake. They faint in the heat and drown in the lake, locals say.

In Karachi Maliha Abbas ZaidiThe founder of the National Dialogue on Climate Change, stresses that Pakistan accounts for less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Yet climate change is hitting the country harder than most of the rest of the world.

“We are constantly learning about the consequences of climate change, but we are not doing anything about them,” says Zaidi.

Climate change is already leading to migration towards cities. The slums are growing and the state is not investing in affordable housing, according to Zaid.

– People living in rural areas are forced to move to cities such as Karachi to get better services. They do not have any mechanisms to cope with rising temperatures in their home regions

Water scarcity is a major problem in the country: it could be at an alarming level in as little as three years.

“We live in a country where more than 90 percent of fresh water goes to agriculture,” Zaidi points out.

In Lake Manchar, farming has not been possible for a long time. Lack of water has even killed the trees.

– Every year the heat gets worse, fisherman Liaqat Ali updates by the lake.

– Everyone has left here. There is nothing here.

Only those who have no other options are left on the lake.

Marvin’s family would like to leave, but her husband is in debt of thousands of euros.

Fishermen cannot sell their catch here, as the state sells fishing rights to the highest bidder. So the locals have no choice but to work for the middlemen.

– We will not be able to repay our debts, and the lender would not even allow us to leave here, Marvi says.

Tears rise in the woman’s eyes.

In the next few years, the interior will become even worse.

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