Disasters are often remembered by what they leave behind. Floods wash away homes, earthquakes reduce cities to rubble, and cyclones uproot entire communities. Their destruction is visible, immediate and impossible to ignore. Heatwaves, however, tell a different story. They don’t leave behind flooded streets or destroyed buildings. Instead, they kill quietly. For example, in crop fields, hospital wards, poorly ventilated houses or on construction sites. Heatwaves are therefore becoming one of Pakistan’s most underappreciated climatic catastrophes.
For decades, Pakistan’s disaster management strategy has largely revolved around floods, earthquakes and droughts. Yet climate change is rapidly changing the country’s risk profile. Extreme heat is no longer a seasonal inconvenience, but has become a recurring national emergency. According to the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Pakistan has experienced deadly heatwaves repeatedly since the late 1970s, with the devastating Karachi heatwave of 2015 claiming more than 1,200 lives and affecting nearly 65,000 people. And during the latest heatwave, the Pakistan Meteorological Department recorded temperatures of 44.1°C in Karachi, the city’s highest since May 31, 2018, when temperatures reached 46°C. Meteorologists have warned that hotter days may still be to come. But the tragedy is that these numbers likely underestimate the true scale of the crisis.
The consequences extend far beyond public health. Every summer, agricultural productivity declines as crops struggle under prolonged periods of extreme heat. Outdoor labourers, including farmers, construction workers, sanitation staff, delivery riders and traffic police, face increasingly hazardous working conditions that reduce productivity while heightening the risk of heat-related illnesses. The International Labour Organization (ILO) warns that rising heat stress is expected to significantly reduce working hours, with agriculture and construction among the sectors most severely affected, particularly in South Asia where millions depend on outdoor work for their livelihoods. At the same time, soaring electricity demand pushes Pakistan’s already fragile power system to its limits, resulting in load shedding precisely when cooling becomes a necessity rather than a luxury. Hospitals experience surges of patients suffering from heat exhaustion, dehydration and heatstroke, placing additional strain on an already overstretched healthcare system. Prolonged heat also accelerates water scarcity by increasing evaporation, stressing reservoirs and intensifying pressure on already limited freshwater resources. Heatwaves are therefore not simply environmental events. They are economic shocks that undermine productivity, weaken public services and deepen existing social vulnerabilities.
Perhaps even more troubling is the inequality that extreme heat exposes. Climate change affects everyone, but it does not affect everyone equally. Those living in well-insulated homes with air conditioning, reliable electricity and access to healthcare experience heat differently from the millions who live in informal settlements or depend on daily wages earned outdoors. For a labourer working under a blazing sun, staying home to avoid extreme temperatures may mean losing the income needed to feed a family. In Pakistan, vulnerability to heat increasingly depends on income, occupation and access to basic services. This is why heat must also be recognised as a climate justice issue.
Our cities are making matters worse. Rapid urbanisation has replaced trees with concrete, asphalt and glass, creating urban heat islands where temperatures remain significantly higher than surrounding areas. Green spaces are disappearing while roads, parking lots and high-rise developments continue to absorb and radiate heat long after sunset. The result is that many urban residents receive little relief even during the night, increasing health risks for vulnerable populations such as children, older adults and people with chronic illnesses.
Ironically, Pakistan contributes less than one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet it remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Pakistan needs to stop treating heatwaves as temporary weather events and start recognising them as predictable disasters. Heat Action Plans should become mandatory in every province, supported by robust early warning systems, cooling centres, occupational safety regulations for outdoor workers and public awareness campaigns. Urban planning must prioritise tree cover, reflective building materials, shaded public spaces and climate-resilient infrastructure rather than allowing cities to become vast reservoirs of trapped heat. Schools, hospitals, local governments, civil society organisations and religious institutions all have a role to play in protecting vulnerable communities during periods of extreme heat.
We often describe climate change as a future challenge. Pakistan’s summers tell a different story. Climate change is no longer approaching. It is already shaping how we work, where we live, what we grow and, increasingly, who survives. The greatest danger is not that temperatures will continue to rise, they almost certainly will. The greater danger is that we continue to measure disasters only by what we can see. Heat does not command headlines because it leaves few visible scars. Yet year after year, it claims lives, weakens the economy and deepens inequality with remarkable consistency. Pakistan does not merely have a heat problem. It has a heat governance problem. Until extreme heat is treated with the same urgency as floods or earthquakes, every summer will become another season of preventable loss and another reminder that our deadliest disaster is the one we continue to underestimate.
The Author is a First-Class Honours graduate in Business Administration from the University of London with a keen interest in climate change, water, sustainability, leadership and social development.
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