'Help Combat Effects of Climate Change' (Page 31)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah & Naa Lartiokor Lartey

THE National Climate Change Focal Person at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Mr William Agyemang-Bonsu, has called on the health sector to put defensive measures in place to combat the effects of climate change on human health.
He said research indicated that climate change had devastating consequences, adding that disasters such as wildfires, droughts, floods and diseases stemming from climate change posed fundamental threat to human well-being and must be well managed.
At the first planning committee meeting for this year’s World Health Day, Mr Agyemang-Bonsu said climate shift would bring changes to the pattern of infectious diseases in addition to poor food yields and loss of people’s livelihoods.
The theme for this year’s celebration, which falls on April 7, is “Protecting Health From Climate Change”. It was selected by the WHO in view of the growing threats climate change presents to international security.
The objective is to raise awareness on the dangers posed by climate variability and change to sensitise and foster greater collaboration among stakeholders on the health implications of climate change.
Climate Change is the change in the atmosphere over a time period that ranges from decades to centuries. The term refers to both natural and human-induced changes.
Mr Agyemang-Bonsu noted that although changes occurred in the climate because of some natural phenomenon, human activities such as bush burning, production of charcoal, burning of gasoline by drivers and some industrial activities, produced greenhouse gases which prevented radiation from getting back into the atmosphere thereby causing heat.
He said research conducted on climate change and health of people at the Out Patients Department (OPD) of the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi revealed that the health of Ghanaians would be negatively affected if nothing was done to reduce the effects.
He said diseases such as malaria, measles, diarrhoea, guinea worm, cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) were seen to be highly influenced by drought, excessive rainfall or heat.
Mr Agyemang-Bonsu said since nothing could make the conditions of the atmosphere change in the next few years, there was the need for people the world over, to appreciate the effects and adapt to them.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Development Geo-information Services, Dr Emmanuel Amamoo-Otchere, said there was the need for policy makers to tackle the issue of sanitation if they sincerely wanted to check climate change.
He also pointed out that a lot would be done if the underlying factors such as poverty, which forced people to indulge in activities which degraded the environment, was looked at and solution found to them.
The Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Joseph Amankwah, called on experts with knowledge on issues on climate change to provide the needed information to health personnel to enable them to play their role effectively.