Scientists have predicted that life will become even more uncomfortable in areas like Karachi due to the rising temperature and humidity level
Sibi, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Dalbandin, Badin, Bahawalnagar, Karachi and Multan are the hottest cities in Pakistan discovered Khuram Pervez Amber and his team of scientists at the department of Mechanical Engineering, Mirpur University of Science and Technology.
The coolest cities in the country are Parachinar, Chitral, Murree, Quetta, Kakul, Saidu Sharif, Panjgur, Peshawar, Islamabad and Khuzdar.
The study, titled ‘Heating and Cooling Degree-Days Maps of Pakistan’, is based on historical data of average temperatures of cities.
Courtesy: Heating and Cooling Degree-Days Maps of Pakistan
As temperatures rise, the water vapour in the air increases. “Our bodies work like evaporative coolers,” he said.
“When humans sweat at a time when the air is already saturated with water content, the result will be an increase in body temperature. This is because the air cannot absorb any more water and the sweat of our bodies does not dry.”
This is expected in cities such as Karachi. “In such [a] situation, life will become more uncomfortable for [the] people.”
According to Amber, the temperature in Karachi is likely to go up as more factories are built and the city gets denser. The government will need to do something.
“Tree plantation in India’s Bangalore helped bring the temperature down,” he said. “This should be our role model.”
Also, 55% of emissions in our country are a consequence of ACs and other equipment in homes and commercial buildings.
The research says that “a building located at Sibi will have [eight] times higher cooling energy bills if the same building was in Parachinar.”
An average air conditioner eats up 20 times the electricity of a ceiling fan. “In order to exactly predict the increase in AC electricity consumption with the rise in temperature, a detailed study is required,” he said. “There are studies that show that AC electricity consumption in hot countries could rise to 15% in [the] near future.
