Heat seems to hang in Rawalpindi, day or night

Temperatures in Rawalpindi have risen considerably and reached even up to 44ºC in the current month. Heat generated during the day stays trapped between cemented buildings at evenings and nights.

“The heat this summer has got the better of us. Over the last one and a half month, or a little over, that I have been away from this city, I have been listening to the news about how unbearable the heat has been. Now back home I am experiencing it,” says Shahab Naqvi from Gulzar-e-Quaid.

“Whatever the city history says about the recorded heat, it has really got us this time. My friend one morning asked me: “Why isn't there any breeze in the open places of the city?” Then he himself answered, because Pindiites have put all the wind in the tires of their cars and buses”. He says the heat of city has increased a few fold by the fumes of vehicles running on petroleum products,” says Shadab Zaidi from Faisal Colony.

Muntazir Mehdi from Fazal Town says: “What is the reason behind Rawalpindi being so unbearable this summer compared to the past? I grew up in this city. At our one storey home we had just ceiling fans, no ACs. We all used to sleep comfortably, but these days the temperature doesn’t recede usually even during the night except the day it rains, so the fan, far from giving comfort, blows hot air. In fact, what the fan does is to blow away the gentle cool breeze and bring in hot air hanging in the atmosphere.”

“I guess this is the price of unplanned urbanization that we have to pay for. Presently, the city is groaning under the heat, therefore, even if I try, I can’t re-live my childhood experience. Seldom does it happen that on a hot day there is some gentle wind blowing,” says Shafqat Hussain from Fazal Town Phase-I.

“It doesn’t rain in the city like it did in the past. Heat seems to hang in here, day or night. City dwellers like me, who are not lucky to have an air conditioner, have to sweat it out,” says Ibnul Hasan from Mangraal Colony.

Sajjad Ali fro Shah Khalid Colony says: “The hottest areas in the city are those where high-rise buildings have been constructed in an unplanned way. There the heat generated during the day gets stuck for the night and is made hotter by the heat generated by the merciless sun next day. And these areas, belonging to the upper class of the society, generate greater heat from the reverse thrust of the air conditioners. Therefore, during the day and at night we have no respite.”