Extreme heatwaves have hit the working class of Bangladesh the hardest with life-threatening temperatures that have also affected their livelihood.

One of them, rickshaw van-puller Sirajul of Lalmonirhat, who gave a single name, was resting a bit under a tree near Aditmari Bazar on Friday afternoon
“It’s difficult to pedal a van with goods under the sun in Baishakh (the first month of summer in Bangla calendar). The heat is so extreme that it feels like my heart will explode. Still, I had to come out,” he said.

“How’ll the poor survive so much heat?” he wondered.

Sirajul said they would not get enough work to buy food for their families if the heatwave continued.

The Lalmonirhat-Patgram Highway was almost deserted in the afternoon as people stopped going out without an emergency.

Rickshaw-puller Hamidul Islam was still waiting for passengers.

“My income has dropped because of the heat. There are no passengers on the streets after 11am,” he lamented. 

Bus driver Ramzan Ali said they have to drive carefully because the extreme heat is causing the bitumen used on the roads to melt.

Emdadul Haque, a farmer of Basuniapara village, said: “I feel like dying while working under the sun. It’s too hot during summer and too cold during winter.”

Ramzan Ali, superintendent of Lalmonirhat District Hospital, said children and the elderly are catching diarrhoea and other diseases because of the heat. More than 100 patients are receiving treatment at the hospital's emergency department every day.
 
Ramzan advised people to avoid going out, or keep water and an umbrella if they have to go out.

The mercury rose to 39 degrees Celsius in Lalmonirhat on Friday afternoon and it is likely to go up further, said Subol Chandra Sen, chief of the regional observatory of Bangladesh Meteorological Department in Kurigram.

Lalmonirhat District Information Officer Shahjahan Ali said they were working to make people aware of the dangers of heat.