Federal Minister for Climate Change, Senator Mushahidullah Khan on Thursday announced to form a body of experts shortly, which would investigate causes of blistering heat wave in the country, so that fallouts of heat waves in future could be mitigated.
"After consultation with experts on heat wave issue, I have decided to set up an experts study and investigative group of scientist and planners including officials of national and provincial disaster management authorities, who will examine the situation from all angles and propose strategy for tacking similar situation in future," the minister said in a press statement issued here.
He said that it was hoped that recommendation by the experts group will include awareness for general public, better strategy for planners so that frequency and intensity of similar extreme weather events could be managed and the loss of life and property could be avoided. Mushahid Ullah warned that the country was most likely to witness increased frequency in incidents of heat wave in future, perhaps in a more intense shape.
However, there is pressing need for raising awareness about health risks from extreme heat among citizens and trained healthcare workers to identify signs of heat stress to avoid its negative impacts on human health, he stressed. He said, "Climate change is increasingly causing extreme weather like heavy rains, floods, heat waves and severe storms and Pakistan is in the grip of these climate risks."
The minister highlighted that climate science had already confirmed that because of global warning such events would be more frequent and more intense, which were also happening in other parts of the world. Only three weeks back, India faced similar heat wave situation which caused over 2,400 deaths, Mushahid Ullah recalled. He further said that in 2003 Europe's intense heat wave killed 32,000 people in the entire continent, nearly 14,000 of them in France. Referring to reports in international media, the minister said that climate change is severely impacting human health because of extreme weather conditions including floods, intense rains, droughts, heat waves and wildfires.
Talking about recent heat wave spell, which continues to grip southern parts of the country, Mushahid Ullah said that causes of searing heat wave in Karachi needed to be analysed in a very serious, comprehensive and scientific manner to be able to tackle and manage such situations in future. The minister said that in the country's largest metropolis of Karachi, the ongoing situation of heat wave broke 10-year old record for being sustained heat wave condition, which had continued for 4-5 days.
The 45 degree temperature was recorded in even shaded open space at the city airport. Whereas, elsewhere in the city the temperature reached approximately 50 degree because of "Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect". Describing the causes of UHI effect, the minister said UHI effect was, in fact, rise in temperature of any man-made area, resulting in a well-defined, distinct `warm island' among the `cool sea' represented by the lower temperature of the area's nearby natural landscape.
Although heat islands may form on any rural or urban area and at any spatial scale, cities like Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad, Multan, and Rawalpindi are favoured. Because, surfaces of such cities are prone to release large quantities of heat, leading to incidents of heat accumulation.
Nevertheless, the UHI effect negatively impacts residents of urban-related environs, humans and their associated ecosystems located far away from cities. Besides, UHI effects have been indirectly related to climate change due to their contribution to the greenhouse effect, and therefore, to global warming, he highlighted. He rebuffed reports in categorically terms that the grave situation of deaths from blistering heat wave in the port city of Karachi is because of load shedding. In fact, many of the unfortunate dead did not have electricity connections, he added. "Instead, it is an extreme climate event as recent scientific investigations indicate," the minister argued.
He stressed on need to improve electricity supply and called for need to learn lessons from the ongoing situation of heat wave and hammer out a strategy to avoid such calamity in future. The minister said that since the residence of Karachi are not used to such situations and unprepared to tackle such situations because of lack of awareness regarding tackling impacts of heat wave, it is extremely important that general public is informed of the ways to handle such situation, which includes, protection from direct sun light, regular use of drinking water to avoid dehydration, specially protecting head and shoulders. Such information and special instruction from relevant government departments, especially for construction workers, who are expose to direct sun, and also vacations in schools need to be issued instantly, he suggested.