Climate change threatens public health - ministry

Namibia must stop waiting for extreme weather disasters to strike before responding, the health ministry has warned, as climate change increasingly threatens public health, food and water security and essential services.

“Climate change is no longer a distant environmental concern," deputy health and social services minister Hambeleleni Ndjaleka warned this week.

Speaking at the University of Namibia’s Hage Geingob Campus in Windhoek, where she officially opened the International Conference on Health and Extreme Weather, she said climate change has already reshaped disease patterns, food and water security, livelihoods and more.

Ndjaleka described Namibia as one of the driest countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with large sections of the economy and household livelihoods dependent on climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, fisheries and natural resources.

“When the rains fail, the consequences move rapidly from the field and the water point to the household, the school, the clinic and the national economy,” she said.

The deputy minister warned that the health consequences of extreme weather are both immediate and long-term.

Extreme heat can trigger heat exhaustion, heatstroke and cardiovascular or respiratory complications, while floods can result in drowning, displacement, contaminated water sources and disease outbreaks.

Drought, meanwhile, can reduce food production, worsen malnutrition and undermine household incomes while also contributing to anxiety, depression and psychological distress. The burden, she said, is not equally distributed.

Protecting lives

Children, older people, pregnant women, persons with disabilities, people with chronic illnesses, informal-settlement residents, subsistence farmers, outdoor workers and low-income households are among those facing the greatest exposure while having the fewest resources to recover.

“A system cannot be described as resilient if it protects only those who are easiest to reach,” Ndjaleka said.

“Resilience is not measured only by how quickly we respond when disaster strikes,” Ndjaleka said. “It is measured by how many lives we protect before it does.”

In a statement, the Office of the Prime Minister’s disaster-risk team reinforced the warning, arguing that resilience must begin before a disaster occurs.

The approach calls for stronger risk understanding, prevention, mitigation, early warning, anticipatory action and recovery, rather than relying predominantly on emergency response. “Early warnings must lead to early decisions,” the disaster-risk management address states.