<
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/sep/23/malawi-climate-crisis-paying-with-our-lives-acc>
"Millions of people in my country, Malawi, face unprecedented existential
crises driven by climate breakdown. The frequency of extreme weather events and
the massive impact they have on communities have left government officials like
me with a huge dilemma of how to act fast enough to save lives. In the past
three years, we have gone from facing the worst flooding in recent times to the
most severe drought in a decade. The impact has been devastating to communities
across the country.
When Cyclone Freddy hit us in March 2023, it killed more than 600 people. The
cyclone injured many more, tore families apart, destroyed livelihoods, and the
long-term effects from diseases were even worse. A little over a year later, we
were in the middle of a raging drought, which the president, Lazarus McCarthy
Chakwera, declared a national disaster in March. Millions of people are facing
acute food insecurity, leading to malnutrition and health issues that are
putting lives at risk, not least for people on long-term treatment for
conditions such as tuberculosis and HIV.
Climatic stresses are increasing displacement and migration to urban areas,
putting more strain on health systems and people’s mental health. Extreme
weather events strain our health systems with injuries and a rise of sickness
from diseases such as cholera and malaria. There are also long-term
complications in prevention and treatment across health programmes due to the
loss of essential medical supplies, equipment and infrastructure. Deaths surge
because of these factors. After Cyclone Freddy, we had our worst ever cholera
outbreak, which lasted over a year and killed more than 1,700 people. This
year, we are battling malaria, which now accounts for almost 25% of hospital
admissions. Women and girls, who already face challenges in terms of equality,
access to resources and control over decision-making processes, are being
disproportionately affected.
But we are fighting back, accelerating our interventions against the most
climate-sensitive diseases while building agile and climate-resilient health
systems that can withstand the shocks caused by these extreme weather events.
We are accelerating the hiring of health workers and equipping them with tools
to tackle emerging challenges. We are building more health centres, ensuring we
bring much-needed services closer to the most vulnerable communities. We are
using mobile clinics, which can also be deployed after emergencies to ensure
life-saving healthcare is available.
As weather patterns change, and become more unpredictable and severe,
information will be key. We cannot plan, respond and be at our most effective
if we cannot identify the challenges we are facing. In addition, existing
paper-based systems are a huge risk. When the floods from Cyclone Freddy tore
through villages in southern Malawi, they carried away books and health
passports containing citizens’ health data. This has taught us that
digitisation is an urgent imperative in our country. Besides protecting data,
electronic health records will enable us to use large amounts of information to
establish trends and build knowledge that can help us revamp health delivery,
improve efficiency and quality of care, while better preparing for future
disease outbreaks."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
