As South Asia bakes in a blistering heat wave, life-or-death decisions come with the midday sun.
Abideen Khan and his 10-year-old son need every cent of their $3.50 a day to turn mud into bricks in an open-air kitchen in Jacobabad, a city in southern Pakistan. But as temperatures soar to 126 degrees Fahrenheit, or 52 degrees Celsius, these days, they are forced to stop at 1 p.m., cutting their income in half.
“It’s not the heat,” Mr. Khan said, sweat dripping down his face and soaking his clothes. “It’s a punishment, maybe from God.”
It’s been another brutal summer in the era of climate change, in the part of the world most vulnerable to its dire effects. And there is more suffering to come: The extreme heat that Pakistan and neighboring India have experienced will continue for days or weeks, forecasters say. Already, it has exacted a deadly toll.
In the northern Indian state of Bihar, officials said at least 14 people had died in the heat. Reports from other states in northern India suggest that the number may be even higher. In India and Pakistan, hospitals have reported many cases of heatstroke.
The ten people killed in Bihar were poll workers preparing for the state’s upcoming elections on Saturday, the last day of India’s national elections. To reduce the heat, glucose and electrolytes are distributed to polling officers, tents are built to provide shade and earthen pots will provide cold water. New Delhi, where temperatures have soared to 122 this week, nearly 20 degrees above normal, recorded an official heat-related death on Wednesday.
In Jacobabad, long considered one of the hottest places on Earth, the temperature reached 126 degrees on Sunday, with highs of 124 each of the following three days. About 75 miles away, the Pakistani city of Mohenjo Daro, famous for being the site of the Indus Valley Civilization dating back to 2500 BC, reached 127 degrees on Sunday, just shy of the record set in 2010.
Scorching temperatures add to the challenges for Pakistan, a country of 241 million people already in economic and political turmoil.
For more than a million people living in Jacobabad district, life is dominated by a constant struggle to find ways to beat the heat. Blackouts lasting 12 to 20 hours a day are common, and some villages are without electricity. Lack of necessities like available water and proper housing adds to the misery.
Most residents cannot afford air conditioners or alternatives, such as Chinese-made solar batteries and rechargeable fans. A solar panel to run two fans and light bulbs costs about a month’s wages for workers in Jacobabad.
The water crisis is so severe that donkeys are seen on the streets carrying tanks, from which residents buy enough water to fill five small plastic jerry cans for $1. Rising demand has driven up the price of ice, making this important commodity harder to come by.
Many poor people have no choice but to work outside. Rice, the lifeblood of Pakistan’s agriculture, demands labor in the fields from May to July, the hottest months.
For Sahiba, a 25-year-old farm worker who goes by one name, each day begins before dawn. She cooks for her family, then walks many kilometers with other women to reach the fields, where she toils until evening in the relentless sun. Until the nine months of the 10th child, she bore a double burden.
“If we take a break for a day or half a day, there is no daily wage, which means my children are hungry at night,” said Ms. Sahiba.
Every summer, 25 to 30 percent of the county’s population become temporary climate refugees, according to community activists. Some sought refuge in Quetta, a city 185 miles north, where the heat was more bearable. Others go to the port city of Karachi, 310 miles south, which has its own deadly heat waves but provides some relief with its less frequent blackouts.
“People who can afford to rent can rent a house in the cold city, but most of the residents are poor. They struggle to survive in makeshift tents built in the open sky,” said Jan Odhano, head of the Community Development Foundation, a Jacobabad-based organization that helps people poor cope with the heat.
Jansher Khoso, a 38-year-old garment worker, knows this struggle all too well.
In 2018, his mother went to the hospital with a heat attack due to rising temperatures in Jacobabad. Now, every April, he sends his family to Quetta, where they stay until autumn, when he works in Karachi. But this comes at a steep price.
“I worked 16-hour days in Karachi to pay for this temporary migration,” said Mr. Khoso, “because I didn’t want my family members to die in the brutal heat of Jacobabad.”
Jacobabad’s woes are not limited to high temperatures. In 2022, monsoon rains and devastating floods – linked to erratic weather patterns linked to climate change – inundated the district and about a third of Pakistan, killing at least 1,700 people.
Heat is nothing new in the city, which is named after John Jacob, a British brigadier general who experienced the harsh climate firsthand in the 19th century.
Leading a small force to crush rebel tribes and bandits, General Jacob lost a lieutenant and seven soldiers to the heat on the first day of a 10-mile march. His diary describes the wind as a “blast from the furnace” even at night.
To overcome the hostile climate, General Jacob introduced an irrigation system and built three canals to supply fresh river water to the residents. Now, the canals are dry and full of garbage.
Suhasini Raj contributed reports from New Delhi.