Date of submission
Introduction
Climate change typically results from prolonged weather variations, which may persist for a more extended period, either a decade or more. Human activities like deforestation of rainforests and livestock farming have profoundly influenced the earth's temperature. The activities enormously add greenhouse gases in the atmosphere containing naturally occurring gases; this increases global warming. Drought is a natural phenomenon exaggerated by human activities resulting in climate change; this has affected many communities worldwide. The communities facing severe drought conditions have faced several consequences as a result of this phenomenon.
Impacts of Climate Change
According to Mukherjee et al. (2018), food production and agriculture have been greatly affected by drought among communities, this may result from water reservoirs having low water levels, and reduced stream flows in rivers. However, this can result from increased temperatures, which increases the evaporation of moisture from soil surfaces and water reservoirs. Additionally, low water levels will result in water competition between humans, livestock, and plants. Barnett (2019) stated that communities under drought circumstances are subjected to experience an increase in food prices; this results from not producing food for their own. Therefore, others will take advantage of the situation by maximizing their profit margins. The high cost of food will significantly affect the low-class population. The communities may lack enough money to buy food that can sustain the entire family.
Moreover, the communities may experience a decline in their livestock prices, which are considered weak and low-quality products. Drought, however, has dramatically subjected these communities to malnutrition (Famularo, 2019); this occurs when the communities have insufficient food and of low quality in terms of nutrition. The malnutrition condition mostly affects the elderly and young populations in the community; this also broadly weakens the immune system. Furthermore, these communities suffer from health issues due to access to drinking water of low quality, dust particles in the air, and increasing chances of respiratory infections.
The communities that face these consequences of climate change are subjected to various vulnerabilities, including livestock loss. The loss may be due to livestock being consumed as a food source or dying due to hunger and thirst. The communities may also be vulnerable to famine if persistent shortages of food become chronic. The community experiencing drought is vulnerable to population loss (Synnefa, Haddad, et al. 2020); this could be due to populations migrating to other areas searching for better living standards. The population loss can also be due to deaths, especially for the young and elderly population who could not withstand prolonged hunger. Besides, the elderly populations are vulnerable to trauma, resulting from witnessing total damage or loss of all the investments they have made in their entire life.
Moreover, these communities are highly vulnerable to displacement due to drought disaster due to their adverse impacts on water and food security. The children, older adults, and pregnant women in these communities are positively affected by airborne and dust-related diseases. Besides, this community also faces a challenge in accessing healthcare centers, especially those from a community's low-class background. Furthermore, these communities' cultivatable lands experiencing drought are at significant risk of facing high soil erosion rates; this results from increased dry winds, which curries soils, thus degrading arable lands.
Conclusion
In conclusion, climate change affects hygiene and sanitation dramatically help control many diseases, communities experiencing drought conditions will not be able to conserve water for personal hygiene, such as maintaining hand washing, cleaning, and washing vegetables before cooking and fruits before eating, thus increasing health risks. Besides, these communities face a challenge of inadequate health facilities available to care for their health.
Reference
Barnett, Q. (2019). As a Drought Spreads - The 'Food Desert' Impact on Urban and Rural Communities. SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.3546305
Famularo, P. (2019). Identifying Malnutrition in PALTC Communities. Caring For The Ages, 20(4), 6-7. doi: 10.1016/j.carage.2019.04.003
Mukherjee, S., Mishra, A., & Trenberth, K. (2018). Climate Change and Drought: a Perspective on Drought Indices. Current Climate Change Reports, 4(2), 145-163. doi: 10.1007/s40641-018-0098-x
Synnefa, A., Haddad, S., Rajagopalan, P., & Santamouris, M. (2020). SI: Survivability under Overheating: The Impact of Regional and Global Climate Change on the Vulnerable and Low-Income Population. Climate, 8(11), 122. doi: 10.3390/cli8110122
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