When the World Bank compared data from 1970-1979 to weather patterns just four decades later, it found the frequency of droughts in sub-Saharan Africa had nearly tripled. Storms quadrupled and floods increased more than tenfold.
Because of that exposure risk, along with poverty, governance issues and stifled abilities to mitigate and bounce back from extreme weather damage, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change IPCC says the continent is among the most vulnerable and least resilient regions in the world.
As climate change intensifies, experts say our health and healthcare systems are going to suffer. But mental health often takes a back seat.
One study that is underway, looks at the effects of flooding on mental health on communities in South Africa, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Mozambique. Joining epidemiology with climate science, the social sciences, input from communities, the humanities and psychology, they are gathering the numbers as well as creative ways to capture the stories to help peel back some of the interconnected layers.
Intodays newsletter, Tanya Pampalone tells us how extreme weather is messing with our minds.Sign up for our newsletter today.
The parched earth opened in jagged cracks. But it was the dead cows on the side of the road that did it.
By October of 2014, government had declared a state of emergency in KwaZulu-Natal. The prolonged drought left some 40 000 heads of cattle dead, with early losses of livestock and crops estimated at R400-million. Dam levels dropped, money was designated for borehole drilling, water tankers rolled in.
