Residents of Nasirabad, a town in Pakistan's Balochistan province, are heavily dependent on ice to manage extreme heat, with temperatures reportedly reaching up to 50C. Many families in the area live in mud-built houses and face limited electricity supply, often for only about three hours daily, with insufficient voltage to power refrigerators reliably.
Each morning, queues form outside the town's ice factory, which produces 400 blocks overnight. These blocks are typically sold out within two hours, primarily used to cool drinking water. Mohammad Haider, the factory owner, stated that demand often exceeds supply, leaving some residents unable to purchase ice.
Those who can afford solar panels use them to power fans and some fridges during daylight hours. However, many cannot afford the batteries needed to store electricity. The Pakistan Meteorological Department had warned in May 2026 that regions including Turbat, near Nasirabad, could experience temperatures between 46C and 50C.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) has indicated that Asia is warming at nearly twice the global average, and the 11 years leading up to 2025 were recorded as the 11 hottest globally. Pakistan ranked 147th in the 2024 Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative country index, highlighting its vulnerability to climate hazards and limited capacity to respond.