Heat takes its toll on Rupandehi people

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

BUTWAL: Soaring temperatures have taken their toll on Rupandehi district with health officials and police attributing summer-borne diseases and heat strokes for the death of three people in the past three days in the district. This aside, the soaring mercury has also hit life in the district in many ways.

Laxmiraj Regmi of the Butwal-based Lumbini Zonal Hospital said Surya Gurung (99), who was one of the five people admitted to the hospital today for treatment of conditions arising from excessive heat, breathed his last. He informed that a person referred to another hospital from the zonal hospital had died on Wednesday. The Rupandehi District Police Office said Jugun Lodh died on Wednesday, attributing the death to unbearable heat.

A zonal hospital source said the hospital has witnessed a dramatic rise in the number of diarrhoea, typhoid and jaundice patients.

In the wake of heat hazards, health workers have advised commoners to drink boiled water and take extra care in view of rising temperatures.

Maheswor Shrestha, chief of the District Public Health Office, said they are on high alert with five people dying in the past one month due to summer-borne diseases and conditions.

Twenty-three days ago, Bhairahawa registered a record temperature of 42 degrees celsius temperatute, Rajesh Jha of the Bhairahawa-based Weather Office said. Weathermen say dry wind has only added to the local people’s woes. The Bhairahawa-based office of meteorology said the highest temperature — 45 degrees celsius — was recorded in 1995, 43 degrees in 2010 and 42 degree celcius in 2009 in Bhairahawa.