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Five questions for African countries that want to build climate-resilient health systems

Five questions for African countries that want to build climate-resilient health systems

EVERY day seems to bring a new headline about a devastating climate event. African countries aren’t spared. A “rain bomb” in South Africa. Flooding in Nigeria. Cyclones battering Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Madagascar. Drought in Kenya. These events have enormous health and social effects, among them death, injuries, malnutrition and diseases (infectious and non-communicable). This all puts tremendous pressure on countries’ health systems, both in terms of caring for those affected and because facilities like hospitals and clinics are vulnerable to damage and destruction. Authors BOB MASH, Distinguished Professor, Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Stellenbosch University CHRISTIAN LUEME…
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Storm damage worsens in a warming world, hiking pressure to adapt

Storm damage worsens in a warming world, hiking pressure to adapt

MEGAN ROWLING MORE powerful storms are battering people and economies harder, with the poor suffering the worst losses, an annual climate risk index showed, as leaders were urged to ramp up their response to climate change impacts at a global adaptation summit on Monday. The index for 2019, from research group Germanwatch, showed that Mozambique and Zimbabwe were the two countries hardest-hit by extreme weather. Both were struck by Idai, the deadliest and costliest cyclone recorded in the southwest Indian Ocean. Just this weekend, central Mozambique was hammered again by another tropical storm, Eloise, which wrecked thousands of buildings, ruined crops…
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With free buses and WhatsApp, southern Africa steps up storm preparedness

With free buses and WhatsApp, southern Africa steps up storm preparedness

RAY MWAREYA and NYASHA BHOBO WHEN tropical storm Chalane threatened Zimbabwe and Mozambique late last year, government authorities and aid agencies sprang into action, having learned lessons from the destruction and loss of life caused by cyclones in 2019. That year, two consecutive cyclones - Idai in March and Kenneth in April – brought unusually heavy rains and high winds, causing more than 1,000 deaths across southern Africa and affecting nearly 4 million people. In late December 2020, ahead of Chalane's arrival in Mozambique and eastern Zimbabwe, it was feared lives, property and infrastructure might be hit hard again. In…
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