Fear and sweating in Pakistan's hottest cities

Sibi : After hours toiling at construction sites in 50 degree-plus heat, Lakhmir Brahmani finds little relief from the sun other than a donkey-powered fan during the dog days of summer in one of Pakistan's hottest cities.

Scientists have warned that swathes of South Asia may be uninhabitable due to rising temperatures by 2100 -- and in the desert community of Sibi in southwest Balochistan province, where the mercury hit 52.4 degrees Celsius (126 Fahrenheit) this summer, it feels like they could be right. 

At night donkeys slowly crank giant hand-made fans to cool sleeping families -- an indigenous remedy for the region's excruciating weather where electricity is in short supply.

"I have no house or personal land... we have no electricity," explained Brahmani, saying he hopes to relocate his family to cooler climates but lacks the money to do so.

"How could I go to (provincial capital) Quetta or other areas where the cost of a truck or tractor ride one way is Rs 10,000 ($95), which I hardly earn in a whole month?"

The subcontinent -- home to one-fifth of the global population -- could see humid heat rise to unlivable levels by the century's end if little is done to put the brakes on climate change, according to a study released earlier this month.

Researchers outlined their findings in the journal of Science Advances warning of "summer heat waves with levels of heat and humidity that exceed what humans can survive without protection".

About 30 percent of the population across the region would be exposed to the scalding temperatures, up from zero percent at present, the report added.

The densely populated, rural farming regions of the subcontinent could be hit the hardest, where workers are exposed to heat with little or no chance to retreat to air-conditioning.

"Deadly heat waves could begin within as little as a few decades to strike regions of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, including the fertile Indus and Ganges river basins that produce much of the region's food supply," said the report.

Pakistan continues to be one of the world's most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, with its northern glaciers melting and population surging along with fast diminishing water supplies.