Pakistani laborers sweat it out in sizzling heat wave

LAHORE: Pakistan continued to sizzle this week after the Met office forecast heat wave conditions across the country, with laborers at a construction site in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore speaking about the challenges of working in the “intense” heat.
The Met Office has predicted high temperatures throughout the week, followed by dust and thunderstorms over the weekend. The governments of Sindh and Punjab provinces have announced closure of schools for a week.
“We do construction work but the heat is so intense that after working for 10 minutes we cannot carry on any more, so we come and sit in the shade for a while,” laborer Mohammad Iqbal said as he took a break from construction work earlier this week.
“What can we do? We have to work for our children. Inflation is so high. If we don’t work what will we eat? How will we feed our children?“
Muslim Hussain said a more flexible work schedule was helping to beat the heat — to some degree.
“Since it’s very hot, we come to work an hour earlier in the morning and get off an hour early,” he said. “We get a couple of hours off during the day. This is the way we are continuing our work.”
The Disaster Management Authority (DMA) has said the heat wave is expected to last for at least 10 days and asked the public to take precautionary measures.
“To fight the heat, I soak this cloth and put it on my head. Sometimes I drink water. Sometimes I sit in the shade for a while and relax,” Shehbaz Khan said.
“We come for work early in the morning.”
But the heat also follows the workers home.
“We don’t get enough sleep after work because when we go home, there is load shedding [power cuts],” Mohammad Irshad said.
“Sometimes we go and sleep on the roof, but it is hot there too. And the mosquitoes keep biting us. The load shedding starts around midnight when it’s time for us to sleep, so we cannot get enough sleep.”