JACOBABAD, Pakistan, May 16, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - By the time Pakistani 
schoolboy Saeed Ali arrived at hospital in one of the world's hottest cities, 
his body was shutting down from heatstroke.

  The 12-year-old collapsed after walking home from school under the burning 
sun, his day spent sweltering in a classroom with no fans.

  "A rickshaw driver had to carry my son here. He couldn't even walk," the 
boy's mother Shaheela Jamali told AFP from his bedside.

  Jacobabad in Pakistan's arid Sindh province is in the grip of the latest 
heatwave to hit South Asia -- peaking at 51 degrees Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) 
at the weekend.

  Canals in the city -- a vital source of irrigation for nearby farms -- have 
run dry, with a smattering of stagnant water barely visible around strewn 
rubbish.

  Experts say the searing weather is in line with projections for global 
warming.

  The city is on the "front line of climate change", said its deputy 
commissioner Abdul Hafeez Siyal. "The overall quality of life here is 
suffering."

  Most of the one million people in Jacobabad and surrounding villages live 
in acute poverty, with water shortages and power cuts compromising their 
ability to beat the heat.

  It leaves residents facing desperate dilemmas. 

  Doctors said Saeed was in a critical condition, but his mother -- driven by 
a desire to escape poverty -- said he would return to school next week.

  "We don't want them to grow up to be labourers," Jamali told AFP, her son 
listless and tearful at her side.

  Heatstroke -- when the body becomes so overheated it can no longer cool 
itself -- can cause symptoms from lightheadedness and nausea to organ 
swelling, unconsciousness, and even death.

  Nurse Bashir Ahmed, who treated Saeed at a new heatstroke clinic run by 
local NGO Community Development Foundation, said the number of patients 
arriving in a serious condition was rising.

  "Previously, the heat would be at its peak in June and July, but now it's 
arriving in May," Ahmed said.

  Labourers forced to toil in the sun are among the most vulnerable.

  Brick kiln workers ply their trade alongside furnaces that can reach up to 
1,000 degrees Celsius.

  "The severe heat makes us feel like throwing up sometimes, but if I can't 
work, I can't earn," said Rasheed Rind, who started on the site as a child.

  - 'Water mafias' -

  Life in Jacobabad is dominated by attempts to cope with the heat.

  "It's like fire burning all around. What we need the most is electricity 
and water," said blacksmith Shafi Mohammad.

  Power shortages mean only six hours of electricity a day in rural areas and 
12 in the city.

  Access to drinking water is unreliable and unaffordable due to scarcity 
across Pakistan and major infrastructure problems.

  Khairun Nissa gave birth during the heatwave, her last days of pregnancy 
spent wilting under a single ceiling fan shared between her family of 13.

  Her two-day-old son now occupies her spot under its feeble breeze.

  "Of course I'm worried about him in this heat, but I know God will provide 
for us," said Nissa. 

  Outside their three-room brick home, where the stench of rotting rubbish 
and stagnant water hangs in the air, a government-installed water tap runs 
dry.

  But local "water mafias" are filling the supply gap.

  They have tapped into government reserves to funnel water to their own 
distribution points where cans are filled and transported by donkey cart to 
be sold at 20 rupees (25 cents) per 20 litres.

  "If our water plants weren't here, there would be major difficulties for 
the people of Jacobabad," said Zafar Ullah Lashari, who operates an 
unlicensed, unregulated water supply.

  - 'Nothing we can do' -

  In a farming village on the outskirts of the city, women wake up at 3am to 
pump drinking water all day from a well -- but it is never enough.

  "We prefer our cattle to have clean drinking water first, because our 
livelihood depends on them," said Abdul Sattar, who raises buffaloes for milk 
and sale at market.

  There is no compromise on this, even when children suffer skin conditions 
and diarrhoea.

  "It is a difficult choice but if the cattle die, how would the children 
eat?" he said.

  Pakistan is the eighth most vulnerable country to extreme weather caused by 
climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index compiled by 
environmental NGO Germanwatch.

  Floods, droughts and cyclones in recent years have killed and displaced 
thousands, destroyed livelihoods and damaged infrastructure. 

  Many people choose to leave Jacobabad in the hottest months, leaving some 
villages half empty.

  Sharaf Khatoon shares a makeshift camp in the city with up to 100 people 
surviving on a few meagre rupees that male family members earn through menial 
labour.

  They usually relocate the camp in the hottest months, 300 kilometres away 
to Quetta, where temperatures are up to 20 degrees Celsius cooler. 

  But this year they will leave late, struggling to save the money for the 
journey. 

  "We have headaches, unusual heartbeats, skin problems, but there is nothing 
we can do about it," said Khatoon.

  Professor Nausheen H. Anwar, who studies urban planning in hot cities, said 
authorities need to look beyond emergency responses and think long term.

  "Taking heatwaves seriously is important, but sustained chronic heat 
exposure is particularly critical," she said.

  "It's exacerbated in places like Jacobabad by the degradation of 
infrastructure and access to water and electricity which compromises people's 
capacity to cope."

  - 'Battlefield' -

  Along a dried up canal filled with rubbish, hundreds of boys and a handful 
of girls in Jacobabad pour into a school for their end-of-year exams.

  They gather around a hand pump to gulp down water, exhausted even before 
the day begins.

  "The biggest issue we face is not having basic facilities -- that's why we 
experience more difficulties," said headteacher Rashid Ahmed Khalhoro.

  "We try to keep the children's morale high but the heat impacts their 
mental and physical health."

  With extreme temperatures arriving earlier in the year, he appealed to the 
government to bring forward summer vacations, which normally begin in June.

  A few classrooms have fans, though most do not. When the electricity is cut 
just an hour into the school day, everyone swelters in semi-darkness.

  Some rooms become so unbearable that children are moved into corridors, 
with youngsters frequently fainting.

  "We suffocate in the heat. We sweat profusely and our clothes get 
drenched," said 15-year-old Ali Raza.

  The boys told AFP they suffered from headaches and frequent diarrhoea but 
refused to skip lessons.

  Khalhoro said his students are determined to break out of poverty and find 
jobs where they can escape the heat. 

  "They are prepared as though they are on a battlefield, with the motivation 
that they must achieve something."