Climate crisis and new challenges for health systems: the case of floods in Rio Grande do Sul/Brazil

Abstract

PLANET, predicted by scientists for the coming decades, have already come.In the first months of 2024, floods occurred in countries in Africa (Kenya) and Asia (Indonesia, Afghanistan), leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless.In May, in Brazil, rain caused the biggest tragedy in the history of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, and one of the biggest in the country.The state has a population of 10.88 billion inhabitants residing in 497 municipalities, of which 90.9% (452) were affected by floods, many of them completely destroyed.The tragedy, in addition to the incalculable material damage (destruction of houses, businesses, plantations, roads, airport, infrastructure in all areas), caused, until May 25, the death of 169 people, and 61 are still missing.Around 2.1 million people were affected, 650,000 were displaced, and 71,500 are homeless (hosted in public shelters).Furthermore, hundreds of them will no longer be able to return to their houses because they were washed away by the flood and because they are located in risk areas, making it impossible to rebuild them in the same place 1 .In the health sector, more than 3 thousand health establishments were affected 2 .The action of the state and municipal governments had the immediate human and financial support of the federal government, which sent more than 20 thousand professionals from different Ministries to assist in the reconstruction of the state and allocated more than R$51 billion in different programs, aimed at the productive sectors and to the affected families, seeking to alleviate the suffering of those who lost everything 3 .Solidarity, demonstrated from North to South of the country, involved the most diverse sectors of society, artists, influencers, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), social movements, sectors of the economy and media, with donations and direct action in civil defense, which proved fundamental in the first days of the tragedy, when the objective was to save lives, by rescuing stranded people and animals, searching for the missing and sheltering the homeless.However, this solidarity -necessary and fundamental -does not replace the role of the State as neoliberals, defenders of the minimal State, tried to make us believe.Without public investments, there is no way to recover the destroyed infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, schools, health services etc.) nor to stimulate the recovery of the productive sector (commerce, industry, agriculture, and others), nor to guarantee the transfer of financial resources to the families.The tragedy revealed the negligence of the administrations of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, the capital Porto Alegre, and several municipalities, which adopted policies to strangle the public sector and privatize areas of public interest.Several recommendations for preventive

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