July 6, 2015 The Pakistan army, security forces and some non-governmental welfare organizations have pooled together to set up relief camps across the southern port city of Karachi, to help people counter the heat wave, which has so far claimed the lives of at least 955 people.
The tents were put up by the army at the entrance to the city’s biggest state-run hospital, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center. They provided free ice water, nutrient powder and simple medical treatment to people suffering mild heat strokes, while serious patients were transferred to the hospital.
Mohammad Siraaj, head of Pakistan army relief camps, talked about their work.
“We serve the people around the clock, with four people on duty simultaneously. Other people provide water and other relief aid. There are about 30 people at each of these relief camps. We also help the emergency department if needed,” There are five army relief camps across Karachi, capital of Sindh Province, and all of them are set up in front of big hospitals or populated living areas.”
“In the past three days, the hospital has admitted 5,000 heat stroke patients. We treated 250 to 300 people,” He added.
The army‘s security forces also vacated their medical rooms to provide medical treatment to the heat stroke patients, and the Sindh government has also set up almost 100 heatstroke prevention centers in Karachi and other regions of the province. Nazar Mohammad Buzdar, executive chairman of Sindh Disaster Management Authority confirmed this.
“Definitely we have 173 roadside heat stroke care units established by health department in rural areas, we have the breakup of the figures in each district. We have 61 roadside camps of health department in Karachi,”
The city was the worst-hit area of the province with temperatures reaching 45 degrees Celsius, the worst during the last decade. Long hours of power outages and shortage of water also added to the health crisis.