As the end of 2020 is closing in, the year is likely to go down as one of the warmest on record. Provisional data from the World Meteorological Organisation shows how high-impact events including extreme heat, wildfires and floods, as well as hurricanes, have affected millions of people, compounding threats to human health and security and economic stability posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. Just a couple of weeks ago tropical Cyclone Gati struck Somalia with force equivalent of a Category 2 hurricane at 105 mph (168 kph) winds, making it the strongest storm on record to hit the country. This has something to do with global warming. It also has something to do with severe flooding, which is an issue around the world and in the continent wreaking havoc. In East Africa, Kenya was among the most affected with more than 285 deaths reported. One might also recall the heavy rains in May in Rwanda that triggered floods and landslides killing over 65 people, and damaged houses and washed away bridges. The thing about these events, not just in East Africa but across the continent, is that they are monitored and better known, more so because of the tragedies and destruction they cause. Not well known or appreciated is extreme heat as a high-impact event, particularly in Africa. There’s a near-complete absence of reported heatwave events over sub-Saharan Africa in disaster databases. This is cause for concern, as extreme heat is a serious risk factor to people’s health. It affects the cardiovascular system and is particularly dangerous for the elderly and people with pre-existing health conditions. Researchers in The Conversation explain how climate projections show that such heatwaves over the African continent will become hotter and more dangerous, even if global warming is kept below 1.5°C. Particularly strong increases in extreme heat are foreseen over Eastern and Southern Africa. The researchers say that bearing in mind changes in populations, the number of people exposed to dangerous heat in African cities is expected to increase at least 20-fold by the end of the century. Yet extreme heatwaves aren’t systematically monitored in many countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region. Heatwaves in Africa are not reported by governments, weather services or public health agencies, though they are happening. Exposure and vulnerability to extreme weather are also more pronounced in many sub-Saharan African countries when compared with European countries. This is mainly due to higher poverty levels, informal settlements and the need for outdoor work. Hence, there’s likely to be an even larger number of premature deaths from severe heat. But they have never been registered, so the number is unknown. This means that there’s little awareness that extreme heat can be deadly. And, with lack of monitoring, there are very few adaptation efforts for the fastest growing hazard in a changing climate. In most developed countries, the researchers observe, national governments provide numbers about affected people, mortality rates and even economic losses for extreme weather events. But for many lower-income countries, these reports are provided by different NGOs as an unsystematic by-product of their disaster relief work. Reporting standards differ depending on the NGO and usually have little or no connection to meteorological services. There’s no central place that records the nature of the event and its impact. Another reason heatwaves aren’t reported could be that they might occur in combination with droughts. They can often lead to food insecurity and humanitarian crises. So, most observations and response mechanisms developed by NGOs and governments are tailored to the adverse outcomes of drought. One hopes that our governments are listening, while there is need to understand the situation in each country as the climate changes leading to more extreme heat events. The researchers suggest putting in place early warning systems and heat action plans, which could be informed by analysis of historical periods of extreme heat, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. They also suggest collaborations between local researchers, hospitals and epidemiologists to identify direct health impacts of extreme heat, as is already happening in pilot projects in Ghana and The Gambia.
