Severe weather: Heat waves, storms, rains and rising sea levels — impact on health and well-being
Global warming increases the frequency and intensity of severe weather events. When this happens, the health and well-being of people who are exposed to these events are affected. Increasing temperatures are causing severe heat waves, storms, heavy rainfall and rising sea levels.
Who suffers the most from the impacts of global warming?
While severe weather affects everyone, poorer people who lack access to resources to help them adapt are most affected. In addition, poorer people generally live in environmentally fragile areas, which puts them more at risk. Communities that are already vulnerable have neither the resilience nor the resources to manage their health or living conditions.
How does severe weather affect people’s health?
Heat waves
When the ambient temperature is more than 5°C higher than normal for more than three consecutive days, the body’s capacity to regulate temperature is affected. This causes issues such as heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and high body temperature, all of which can require medical care and even cause death. People whose health is already compromised — for example, they have heart disease or diabetes — are more vulnerable to the effects of heat stress. Heat wave seasons are becoming longer, and early and late-season heat waves are becoming frequent. As a result, heat-related deaths are increasing.
Storms and heavy rainfall
Flooding, landslides, loss of infrastructure and displacement of people are all consequences of frequent and intensive storms and heavy rainfall. In turn, these contribute to the spread of water-borne and communicable diseases such as malaria, dengue and diarrhoea. Heavy rainfall and storms can prevent people from accessing basic health services. Children, especially if they are undernourished or malnourished, are particularly vulnerable in this situation.
Rising sea levels
Climate change causes sea levels to rise, which leads to flooding in coastal areas. Flooding can lead to the contamination of water and land, because untreated wastewater or toxins in the soil may get mixed up with the flood waters. Contaminated drinking water can lead to the spread of water-borne and other diseases. People who live in constant fear of flooding and losing land to the sea experience mental agony and stress.
Read the case studies below to expand your understanding of the local impacts of such severe events.
Case study
Climate change in Bangladesh: Infectious diseases and mental heal
In Bangladesh, climate change is causing an increase in respiratory diseases, mosquito-borne diseases — for example dengue — and mental health problems.
Watch the video Climate Change in Bangladesh – Impact on Infectious Diseases and Mental Health by the World Bank to find out more. (The video is about two-thirds of the way down the Web page.)
Case study
Older people and those with disabilities most at risk during flooding in Bangladesh
Following the June 2022 floods in the Sylhet and Sunamaganj districts of Bangladesh, older people and people with disabilities were unable to access basic services, which put their lives at risk. Abdul Kadir, 67, from Tahirpur, Sunamganj, said he had to rely on his son for food and water: “During the flood it was like we were in hell. My son went swimming or wading in the water to collect aid when he heard of anything.” Taslima Begum, a 20-year-old woman with an intellectual disability, died in her home in Bishwamvarpur, Sunamganj, after falling into a flooded toilet pit. Habibur Rahman, from Bishwanath, Sylhet, whose 80-year-old mother died during the flooding because she did not have access to her medications, believes his mother could have survived had people been warned of the coming floods.
Adapted from Human Rights Watch. (2023, 19 June). Bangladesh: Protect people most at risk during monsoon season. https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/06/19/bangladesh-protect-people-most-risk-during-monsoon-season
Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US DEED
Case study
A burning emergency: Extreme heat and the right to health in Pakistan
Jacobabad, a city in Pakistan, experiences very hot summers, with temperatures reaching over 50°C at times between May and October.
“Amnesty International interviewed agricultural workers, labourers in brick kiln factories, delivery riders, police officers, sanitation workers and others whose outdoor work exposed them to the extreme temperatures. They also interviewed other people who experienced heat-related stresses or were involved in responding to it. People mentioned facing issues such as heatstroke, feeling drowsy, having difficulty breathing, burning sensations in the stomach, dizziness, fever, body pain, eye infections, and headaches, when they spent time outdoors. Poor, especially their children, were affected more from heat-related stress. A daily wage worker living in an informal settlement in Jacobabad said that her family are frequently ill during the hot summers, especially the children who experience high fever, loose stools, and vomiting. One of her sons also has asthma, which she attributed to the hot summer weather. Another daily wage earner, also from Jacobabad, spoke about similar experiences of frequent illness among her children during the summer months. The scorching summer heat affected even those exposed to the high temperature for shorter durations. For example, a university student explained that ‘now the temperature goes so high that if we walk from one department to another at the university, we feel unwell. My head starts hurting and I feel quite strange’” (Amnesty International, 2023, p. 18).
Source: Amnesty International. (2023). A burning emergency: Extreme heat and the right to health in Pakistan. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/6823/2023/en/
Licence: Creative Commons BY NC-ND
Image source: Zachariah, M., et al. (n.d.). Climate change made devastating early heat in India and Pakistan 30 times more likely (p. 24). https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/wp-content/uploads/India_Pak-Heatwave-scientific-report.pdf
Licence: Open source
Case study
Floods and droughts in Malawi
Floods and droughts are increasingly common in Malawi, and they cause serious health problems, including increased infant mortality rates and increased incidence of chronic illnesses. A significant number of people in Malawi have HIV/AIDs and are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events.
Adapted from: Trocair. (n.d.). Malawi: A climate change case study. https://www.trocaire.org/sites/default/files/resources/policy/malawi-climate-change-case-study.pdf
Licence: Can be viewed; material cannot be reproduced
Assessment
Formative assessment: 2.1
- Reflect on the various health impacts of climate change mentioned in this section.
- In your journal, write a list of severe weather events in your area during the last two to three years.
- During these two to three years, did you notice any specific illnesses or health-related issues in your village?
- Was there an increase or decrease in the health issues during and after the severe weather events?
- Whose health was most affected by the severe weather events?
