Social Vulnerabilities and Community Responses in India: Extreme Weather and COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The health of populations is inseparably linked with weather and climate and disease epidemiology. Extreme weather events like heat waves, storms, droughts, and dangerous flooding bring destruction in their wake. Damage to infrastructure and other built environments is easily visible after an extreme weather event. Extreme weather events bring physical injury and death, creating mental health consequences in their wake. A new realization has captured the imagination of the world, that of extreme weather events along with disease pandemics, like the COVID-19 crisis. Weather extremes and disease pandemics, together, present challenging problems particularly for governments and communities alike. Poor and vulnerable populations are the most affected. The capacity of a community to plan and prepare for extreme weather and pandemics is a new and important determinant of health consequences and their severity. Existing public health and safety systems are significant factors in responding to such combined emergencies. Other factors include the age, gender, education, medical conditions, and socioeconomic status of the populations affected. Such double events affect most, if not all, elements of life, including agriculture yields and the long-term food security of nations. Therefore, governments, community institutions, nongovernmental organizations, international agencies, and individual citizens must consider preparation for all such combined extreme events a priority. This chapter presents an overview of mental health consequences of the combined effects of a pandemic (COVID-19) and extreme weather events—heat waves, droughts, floods, rains, and their unpredictable intermittency—when they happen together.

Mental health following such combined events is a challenge. Government, community, and agencies extant, rush to help, to deal effectively with the present and future combined events and their known and potential consequences. Best practices in response to this combined, continuing, extreme weather events with a pandemic are also considered.