Supporter call: climate and WASH

Dr Martin Muchangi, Director of Population Health and Environment, Amref Health Africa

James Mturi, WASH programme manager, Amref Tanzania

Adaptation / mitigation

What does climate resilience mean? Critical elements to build climate resilience  

Climate change is a major disrupter of health service, touching community health where we live, also disrupts health facilities where we get treatment. Floods, droughts, communities and food systems disrupted - not good enough food for their nutrition.

A set of actions that help communities to bounce back. When extreme events happen there are major disruptions to the way people live. Address immediate impacts of climate change - and long term. Amref work:

1. government engagement, to ensure we have coordinated actions so partners are working in synergy. Co-creating solutions that are impactful to communities. Measure ourselves to see where we are going.

2. Working with communities. Action and empowerment happens in the communities - with health workers. awareness. communities can do for themselves. Sustainability.

3. strengthen health systems - novel / innovative methods - early warning systems. CHW collect climate and health data, help them to put it together, into platforms to transmit the data, so decisions can be made on the. Strengthen livelihoods - eg agriculturalists

Floods 

First responders

Building resilience

From very bad drought to catastrophic floods. Basic services.

Gap in reporting - understanding where problem was. Built capacity of health workers to collect data, report it through mobile. This developed early warning systems . M-Jali - communicates to communities using SMS.

Why One Health? 

Most interventions are siloed. This is not efficient in cost or impact. Addressing env, human, animal health together. Contexts in which we live - if animal health isn't good, then diseases from them jump to humans. Brings in agriculture and veterinary sectors - to address common problems in communities. Using this in Kenya and South Sudan.

Treat animals and health workers see human patients - more cost effective and impactful

Use migration lines - pastoralist communities. Mapping migration routes - spot where communities will naturally pass through - container clinics placed there.

Cholera outbreaks 

climate change - NCDs and communicable impacts. Vector-borne / water-borne / water-related (WASH).

Mapping diseases that are climate sensitive - predictions on where these diseases will occur. Govt and others - preparedness and response plan.

Building capacities of health workforce so they can respond effectively to crises.

Malaria 

spreading to highlands - mosquito factor--thriving in areas it couldn't previously

Water (flooding) - causes mosquitoes to multiply

Warmer air lets it fly 6km longer than it would be able to in cooler weather

TANZANIA

350k reached Dar es Salaam

briquette use - so not burning charcoal, lung cancer risk, loss of land and woodland

Climate resilience - if we cut emissions daily from household cooking - firewood, we have a chance to protect communities - if we get it right, we will address a huge problem. Transitioning to cleaner energies, then smallscale farming manageable at ghiosue

how did you convince communities that briquettes come from waste - dramatic change

James - CHWs - community meetings discussion - trust is there from 60 years of work