When floods recede, rights crisis remains

Moses Magadza

DURBAN – A flood can wash away a road in hours but its consequences for a pregnant woman unable to reach maternity care, a young person cut off from contraception or a survivor of sexual violence stranded without support can last far longer.

These less visible emergencies formed the heart of a panel discussion at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa, where experts called for sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) to become an essential part of climate preparedness, emergency response and financing.

Held on 9 September during “Sweden on the Road: Gender-responsive Climate Action Edition” under the leadership of Swedish Ambassador to South Africa, Her Excellency Anna Karin Eneström, the discussion challenged approaches that measure disaster damage principally through destroyed infrastructure while overlooking disrupted healthcare, deepening inequality and threats to human dignity.

Convened by the Embassy of Sweden, the event sought to connect climate action with gender equality and SRHR, bringing policymakers, researchers and young people into dialogue on responses that better protect vulnerable communities. Scores of UKZN students actively participated in the wider event. Under the theme ‘Beyond the Floods: Protecting Rights, Health and Dignity in a Changing Climate’, Professor Kaymarlin Govender, Ms Amanda Gcanga and Dr Tamaryn Crankshaw explored how climate shocks magnify existing vulnerabilities. Dr Rabia Rizwi moderated.

The central message was that protecting people requires more than rebuilding what a disaster destroys. It requires keeping essential services functioning, financing adaptation and involving affected communities in decisions.

Govender, Research Director at UKZN’s Health Economics and HIV and AIDS Research Division (HEARD), described climate change as a multiplier of risks rooted in poverty, gender inequality, weak health systems, stigma and discrimination.

He said the evidence linked climate-related exposures and disruptions to adverse maternal and newborn outcomes, reduced access to HIV and sexually transmitted infection services, and increased gender-based violence and harmful practices.

However, he identified important research gaps, including reproductive autonomy, contraception, the experiences of marginalised populations and the effectiveness of interventions. His strongest policy appeal concerned emergency planning.

“I think it’s really important to have SRHR as an essential service as part of emergency protocols,” he said. He explained that disaster responses commonly prioritised search and rescue and immediate medical interventions. Sexual and reproductive healthcare needed to be built into that package.

“We should have SRH built into that package of services,” he stated.

Govender also called for HIV and SRHR services to be paired with social protection, arguing that medication access alone could not resolve the difficulties facing someone without food, water or security.

“We need to have mental health support and psychosocial support to be integrated as part of the core package of services.”

Crankshaw, HEARD’s SRHR Programme Leader, explained the double pressure that makes climate disruption particularly dangerous, with people’s healthcare needs increasing as the systems meant to meet them become less able to respond.

“Climate change impacts SRHR needs and deepens SRHR needs,” she said.

Damaged facilities, impassable roads, disrupted supply chains and the reassignment of healthcare workers could interrupt contraception, antenatal care, maternity services and abortion care. Some services and commodities were time-sensitive, making delays potentially consequential.

“These are not commodities that you can wait to take,” she said when discussing support required by survivors of sexual violence.

Crankshaw warned that gender-based violence presented a particular challenge because an effective response depended on several sectors working together.

“Gender-based violence uniquely requires a multi-sectoral response,” she said.

Survivors could need healthcare, police protection, justice services, psychosocial counselling and shelter. When referral pathways broke down during disasters, the coherence of that entire response was compromised. She also cautioned against treating women, men or young people as uniform groups. Age, gender, race and socioeconomic circumstances interacted to make some people more vulnerable than others. “Within groups of women, which women are more vulnerable, for what reasons than other women, and what should our response be?” Gcanga, a senior urban policy analyst at the World Resources Institute, connected these health and rights concerns to the everyday systems on which communities depend.

Floods could simultaneously damage homes, water and sanitation networks, electricity infrastructure and roads. The resulting pressures extended into household safety, schooling and access to care.

Yet infrastructure departments and those responsible for people’s welfare often approached the same disaster separately.

“The two need to go together,” she said.

Drawing on municipal examples, Gcanga described efforts to integrate infrastructure protection with gender equity, social inclusion and meaningful community engagement. She highlighted Johannesburg’s river management work, where consideration of costs to people helped broaden an initially infrastructure-focused approach.

Women, young people, older residents and traditional healers need to be recognised as partners in developing solutions.

* Moses Magadza is the media and communications manager at the SADC Parliamentary Forum.

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