JOHANNESBURG – Extreme heat is not only harming the health of slum dwellers across Africa, but also damaging their ability to earn a living, with around a quarter reporting they had to take time off work, an independent research body said in a report this week.
Across the Global South, a growing crisis of overheating cities is impacting the health and livelihoods of more than 1 billion people living in informal settlements, a figure expected to increase sevenfold by 2050, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said in the report.
“Heat waves and other extreme weather can derail productivity, disrupt children’s schooling and cause health problems,” IIED principal researcher Anna Walnycki said in a statement. “Wherever you look, people with the fewest resources are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.”
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