As South Asia bakes under a sweltering heat wave, life-or-death decisions arrive with the midday sun.
Abideen Khan and his 10-year-old son need every cent of their $3.50 a day to turn shaped mud into bricks in an open-air kiln in the southern Pakistani city of Jacobabad. . But with temperatures soaring to 126 degrees Fahrenheit (52 degrees Celsius) in recent days, they were forced to stop just before 1 p.m., cutting their income in half.
“It’s not heat,” Mr. Khan said, sweat dripping down his face and soaking through his ragged clothes. “It’s a punishment, maybe from God.”
It’s another brutal summer in the age of climate change, in one of the world’s most vulnerable areas to its dire effects. There’s more misery ahead: Forecasters say the scorching heat experienced by Pakistan and neighboring India will continue for days or weeks. It has taken a deadly toll.
Officials in the northern Indian state of Bihar said at least 14 people had died from the heat. Reports from other northern Indian states suggest the number may be much higher. Hospitals in both India and Pakistan have reported high numbers of heat stroke cases.
Ten of the dead in Bihar were polling workers preparing for voting in the state on Saturday, the last day of India’s national elections. To ease the heat, we are distributing glucose and electrolytes to polling officials, setting up tents to provide shade, and providing cool water in clay pots. New Delhi has seen temperatures near 122 degrees this week, nearly 20 degrees above normal, and on Wednesday officials recorded its first heat-related death this year.
Jacob’s Abad has long been considered one of the hottest places on Earth, with temperatures reaching 126 degrees on Sunday and a high of 124 degrees over the next three days. About 75 miles away, the temperature in the Pakistani town of Mohenjo Daro hit 127 degrees on Sunday, just shy of the record set in 2010. And famous.
The scorching temperatures are exacerbating challenges facing Pakistan, a country of 241 million people already dealing with economic and political turmoil.
For the more than one million people who live in the Jacob Abad region, life is dominated by a constant struggle to find ways to cope with the heat. Power outages lasting 12 to 20 hours a day are common, and some villages are completely without power. Lack of ready access to necessities such as water and adequate shelter exacerbates the suffering.
Most residents cannot afford air conditioners or alternatives such as Chinese-made solar cells and rechargeable fans. A solar panel that powers two fans and a light bulb costs about a month’s salary of a Jacob Abad worker.
The water crisis is so serious that donkeys can be seen everywhere on the streets carrying water tanks, and residents spend $1 from the tanks to buy enough water to fill five small plastic jugs. The surge in demand has pushed up the price of ice, making this vital commodity harder to find.
Many poor people have no choice but to go out to work. Rice is the lifeblood of Pakistan’s agriculture, with May to July being the hottest months and requiring hard work in the fields.
For Sahiba, a 25-year-old farm worker who goes by only one name, every day begins before dawn. She cooked meals for her family, then walked miles to the fields with other women, toiling under the unforgiving sun into the afternoon. Nine months pregnant with her tenth child, she was carrying a double burden.
“If we take a day off or a half day off, there is no daily wage, which means my children will go hungry that night,” Ms Sahiba said.
According to community activists, 25 to 30 percent of the region’s population become temporary climate refugees every summer. Some seek refuge in the city of Quetta, 185 miles to the north, where the heat is more bearable. Others headed to the port city of Karachi, 310 miles to the south, which also experienced a deadly heat wave but experienced some relief due to less frequent power outages.
“Those who can afford it may rent in cooler cities, but most residents are too poor. They struggle to survive in makeshift tents set up in the open air,” said Jane Ordano, director of the Community Development Foundation. Jan Odhano, a Jacobabad-based organization that helps poor people cope with hot weather.
Garment worker Jansher Khoso, 38, knows the struggle all too well.
In 2018, temperatures soared in Jacob Abad and his mother was sent to the hospital suffering from heat stroke. Now, every April, he sends his family to Quetta, where they stay until autumn while he works in Karachi. But this comes at a high cost.
“I worked 16 hours in Karachi to pay for this temporary migration,” Mr. Koso said, “because I didn’t want any of my family members to die in the heat of Jacob Abad.”
Jacob Abad’s suffering isn’t limited to the heat. Monsoon rains and devastating floods – linked to erratic weather patterns linked to climate change – inundated the region and about a third of Pakistan in 2022, killing at least 1,700 people.
Heat is nothing new in the city, which was named after British Brigadier General John Jacob, who experienced the harsh climate firsthand in the 19th century.
General Jacob, leading a small force to suppress rebellious tribes and bandits, lost a lieutenant and seven soldiers to the intense heat on the first day of a 10-mile march. His diary described the wind as “breathing from the furnace”, even at night.
In response to the harsh climate, General Jacob introduced an irrigation system and built three canals to provide fresh water to the residents. Today, the canal is dry and filled with garbage.
Suhasini Raj Reporting from New Delhi.
