Climate change. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Kenya is simultaneously facing two crises; the unprecedented
impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the resultant effects of
instituted containment measures and climate change. The pandemic has
resulted in a global health crisis that has caused the shutting down of
economies, straining of health systems and a change in the social order.
The prescribed containment measures of social distancing have
occasioned the closure of businesses in both the formal and informal
sectors. This has brought to the fore, the inextricable linkage between
the health, food, and environment sectors, the same sectors that are
directly and indirectly impacted by climate change.
On
the other hand, the impacts of climate change continue to be witnessed
in Kenya, with erratic rainfall patterns and extreme weather events such
as droughts and flooding occurring. The common factor in both crises is
the human impact.
The containment measures for
Covid-19 are not only meant to lower the rate of the spread of the
disease, but also to prevent health systems from being overwhelmed by an
increasing number of positive cases. Climate change impacts make it
difficult to deal with the crisis as they add another layer on the
already destabilised system.
These impacts are evident
in Kenya and communities have had to put in place coping and adaptation
strategies in order to build their resilience. However, these measures
are not always in tandem with the government’s aim of controlling the
spread of the disease.
The flooding caused the
displacement of people from their homes. Families had to seek shelter
without due regard to the social distancing rules. This not only
increases the chances of transmission of the disease from one person to
the other, but also complicates contact tracing as people might migrate
from the flood prone areas to higher ground.
Further to this, adaptation measures taken with regards to
flooding result in the migration of persons from rural to urban areas.
It is estimated that majority of this population end up in informal
settlements, characterised by high population density, and lack of
access to basic amenities such as water. This impedes their capacity to
institute disease containment measures effectively.
Climate
change directly impacts access to clean water, yet a major recommended
practice against infection of the coronavirus is improved sanitation
through handwashing. Nairobi residents had been experiencing water
rationing due to water scarcity before the long rains. This has meant an
added cost to their budget as the scarcity has driven prices up. Even
with the beginning of the long rains, residents have still lacked access
to water.
The lock-down of four counties in Kenya has
also disrupted the social safety nets that are in place for people
living in urban areas. Although this is a direct impact of the
containment measures, climate change impacts have also compounded this
disruption by destruction of crops in the farms due to heavy rainfall
over a short period of time, coupled with the interruption of food
supply chains.
The most vulnerable population to food
shortages are the poor, who lack access to basic services such as
healthcare and clean water which are essential to prevent the spread of
the disease. The lack of food causes hunger and eventually malnutrition,
this in turn weakens the immune system which makes individuals
susceptible to infection.
Climate change will continue
to aggravate economic damage and the consequential effect of diverting
funds from the prevention kitty in the short term. In the long term, it
will hinder sustainable development due to climate related loss and
damage which leads to poverty, a higher debt and lowered adaptive
capacity. In turn, this will hamper recovery efforts to the economy
post-Covid-19.
Both the Covid-19 and climate change
crises are cross-cutting in nature and require a multi-sectoral approach
in policy frameworks in order to adequately tackle the challenges. This
approach should also include the private sector, civil societies and
target communities and will enable the development of a comprehensive
approach thereby preventing replication or clash of measures.
The
interplay of the coronavirus and climate change has magnified the
inequalities present in Kenya. Poor communities are more susceptible to
infection, yet lack the capacity to absorb its financial impact, while
at the same time their social safety nets have been degraded.
Building
the climate resilience of such communities will have the residual
impact of lowering the impacts of the coronavirus. The capacity building
networks that are in place for climate change resilience can be used
for educating the communities on the impacts of the coronavirus and best
practices for prevention of infection. For example, in helping
communities harness clean water for use, through roof rainwater
harvesting technologies, clean water for handwashing purposes will be
available for use in the home.
Timely data acquisition
is important. The government should take up the use of early warning
systems in the monitoring of high impact risks such as climate change
and pandemics. Use of this data will enable them to institute measures
to combat such high impact crisis more effectively.
Furthermore,
the present economic costs and changes in behaviour should be well
documented. This will enable the modelling of future climate impacts as
well as behavioural patterns of people during a pandemic. The resultant
effect would be a database of information that can be used to institute
specific measures that consider prevailing conditions and therefore
stand a better chance of being realised by the populace.
The writer is climate change researcher at ACAL Consulting, a think tank.
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