{"id":77544,"date":"2025-07-31T11:05:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:05:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=77544"},"modified":"2025-07-31T15:12:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T13:12:26","slug":"the-climate-crisis-hits-healthcare-in-south-africas-rural-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/77544\/the-climate-crisis-hits-healthcare-in-south-africas-rural-communities\/","title":{"rendered":"The climate crisis hits health care in South Africa\u2019s rural communities\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Activist highlight the pollution and health problems caused by South Africa’s cluster of coal-fired power stations, the most polluting in the world.
\u00a9 Shayne Robinson \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and severe in Sub-Saharan Africa, with countries like South Africa experiencing back-to-back climate chaos<\/a>. Patients in the country\u2019s rural areas have to skip or stop medications for their chronic illness as storms and floods batter clinics. <\/p>\n\n

For Noford Liwane, missing a clinic appointment is no longer an exception, it has become routine whenever it rains. The 67-year-old, who lives in the country\u2019s rural Eastern Cape<\/a> province, relies on the nearby Gwadana Clinic, a dilapidated facility described by locals as no more than a single garage structure. A storm blew away the clinic’s waiting area shelter more than two years ago. Since then, patients have had to wait in the open, exposed to searing heat, winter winds or heavy rain.<\/p>\n\n

“When it rains, I just stay home,” said Liwane. “There is no shelter, and the building leaks. It is better to wait for another day than to sit in the cold and rain. This is a problem because I end up defaulting on my hypertension medication.”<\/p>\n\n

Liwane lives in a remote village outside iDutywa, where travel to alternative health centres, often more than 30km away, is unaffordable for many who rely on government social grants.<\/p>\n\n

Climate-damaged infrastructure risks lives<\/h3>\n\n

A 2025 study by Walter Sisulu University<\/a> researchers found that damaged health infrastructure in rural areas is a major contributor to non-adherence to medication. The study highlighted reduced access to medication, inadequate services, and financial hardship as key reasons to stop or skip treatment, with serious consequences for health and mortality.<\/p>\n\n

As climate change intensifies, South Africa’s overstretched public health system is buckling under the weight of storms, floods and rising temperatures.<\/p>\n\n

Gwadana is one of 142 public health facilities<\/a> in six provinces that were damaged by extreme weather between 2023 and 2025, according to South African health minister Aaron Motsoaledi. The clinic serves about 20 villages under the Mbashe local municipality, treating hundreds of patients each month, many of them on chronic medication. But worsening weather<\/a> and crumbling infrastructure have disrupted services and made access difficult.<\/p>\n\n

“I live about 17km from the clinic. On appointment days, I leave home at 5am and hope to catch a village bakkie<\/em> [a small truck],” said Liwane. “People are forced to choose between paying for transport or buying food.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Community member Malwande Jama said residents often hire private vehicles, paying more than R2,000 (\u20ac100) sometimes, to transport patients to the closest hospital in Gcuwa. “By the time you arrive, it is often too late. In some cases, the person has already passed away,” he said.<\/p>\n\n

In Kariega, 55-year-old Vukile Mtika from KwaNobuhle (also in the Eastern Cape) said his local clinic, Laetitia Bam, had been flooded twice, most recently in early 2024. “Services were moved to a church building that was too small. I had to change clinics and now spend money on transport.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n \t\t\t

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Climate damage affecting healthcare facilities across South Africa<\/h3>\n\n

Last month Motsoaledi gave a provincial breakdown after a parliamentary question asking how many South African health facilities had been damaged due to extreme weather events:<\/p>\n\n