INCOMES DOWN
Manual labourers and street vendors say working in the heat is tough, and with those who are able staying out of the sun at home, incomes are down.
“My income has significantly declined; I used to make 20 to 30 trips a day, but now it is down to 10 to 15,” said 60-year-old motorised rickshaw driver Abdul Mannan.
“My body doesn’t allow more than this in this heat.”
“It saps all your energy,” said fellow driver Raisul Islam, 35, gulping a lime sherbet drink at a roadside stall in Dhaka. “It is tough to drive rickshaws in the scorching heat.”
Rashid, of the meteorological department, said the heatwave would cool once monsoon rains land in mid-June, while the government has said power production will increase in two weeks once fuel imports arrive.
Fruit seller Mohammad Manik, 31, exhausted by the heat, said he was seeing fewer customers in the high temperatures, and was just waiting for the weather to change.
“The situation is very bad in this heat – I spend my day here at work, and when I return home, there are power cuts,” he said.
“So I can’t sleep well, staying awake for almost the whole night.”
Source: CNA
