How urban planning can help Karachi tackle a growing heat crisis
Pakistani residents cool off during an hot summer day in Karachi. PHOTO: AFP
How urban planning can help Karachi tackle a growing heat crisis
Karachi is what experts call an urban heat island, a city that is warmer than its surrounding suburban and rural areas
Last Friday, the mercury climbed to nearly 40 degrees Celsius in Karachi. The Pakistan Meteorological Department had issued an advisory earlier in the week warning temperatures would rise after March 30, 2021. It’s hard to take a warning like that without a sense of impending dread. After all, it was only six years ago when a near apocalyptic heatwave claimed over 1,200 lives in the city. In the time since then officials have acted proactively to address future hot weather, with the Government of Sindh issuing a technical report in 2017 replete with actionable recommendations. But the question remains whether measures identified since then address the root
Buildings sans public safety
The construction of emergency exit ways is mandatory in buildings exist but they are not being implemented
Editorial
February 14, 2021
Government officials have made astonishing disclosures before the Sindh High Court with regard to public safety in residential and commercial buildings. The director general of the Sindh Building Control Authority informed the court during a recent hearing that rules making the construction of emergency exit ways mandatory in buildings exist in the statute books, but they are not being implemented. An emergency phone helpline had been set up at the Karachi Commissioner Office to address fire incidents and other such happenings, but now it has been deactivated. On a query from the court, the officer’s representative said the IT service too was dysfunctional in the commissioner’s office and this had rendered the helpline non-functional; now all work in this office was being done manually.
SHC seeks reports on Keamari gas leakage
Karachi
January 21, 2021
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday directed the environmental watchdog of the province and the Ministry of National Food Security & Researchâs Department of Plant Protection (DPP) to submit detailed reports on the alleged gas leak in Keamari that claimed the lives of 17 people and affected hundreds.
Hearing a petition seeking an inquiry into the Keamari incident, a division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar asked a provincial law officer who was responsible for the gas leakage and what were the reasons for the deaths in the incident.
Karachi
December 10, 2020
A three-tier task force, with sub-committees at divisional, district and sub-district levels, has been constituted for the inspection of high-rise buildings, factories and industries to ensure that all fire safety measures are being followed in the establishments.
Hearing a petition concerning the implementation of the safety by-laws under the Building Code of Pakistan, a division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, asked the provincial law officer what mechanism had been formulated to inspect different buildings and industries/factories to ensure that the establishments are following and observing all fire safety measures.
The court was informed that a task force had convened its meeting and that it had constituted sub-committees at divisional, districts and sub-divisional levels and had formulated mechanism at their levels to ensure the fire safety laws. The law officer said the divisional task force shall ascertain the complaints