Flood Hazards and Health : Responding to Present and Future Risks

232 Pages·2013·4.925 MB·English

by  Few, Roger

Flood Hazards
& Health
Edited by Roger Feiww m l FFrranziska Matthies
Flood Hazards and Health

Flood Hazards and Health
Responding to Present and Future Risks
Edited by
Roger Few
and
Franziska Matthies
IgqiaiiElHSISIgl
London • Sterling, VA
First published by Earthscan in the UK and USA in 2006
Copyright © Roger Few and Franziska Matthies, 2006
All rights reserved
ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-215-6 hardback
ISBN-10: 1-84407-215-0 hardback
Typesetting by JS Typesetting Ltd, Porthcawl, Mid Glamorgan
Printed and bound in the UK by Cromwell Press,Trowbridge
Cover design by Danny Gillespie
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Few, Roger.
Flood hazards and health : responding to present and future risks / Roger Few
and Franziska Matthies.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-84407-215-6
ISBN-10: 1-84407-215-0
1. Floods-Health aspects. 2. Floods-Psychological aspects. 3. Global warming-
Hcalth aspects. 4. Global warming-Environmcntal aspects. 5. Emergency medical
services. 6. Disaster relief. I. Matthics, Franziska. II.Title.
RA645.9.F49 2005
363.34’93-dc22
2005027705
Printed on elemental chlorine-free paper
Contents
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes VI
About the Authors
Acknowledgements X
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations XI
Introduction 1
1 Flood Hazards, Vulnerability and Risk Reduction 8
Roger Few
2 The Health Impacts of Floods 28
Mike Ahern and Sari Kovats
3 Responses to the Health Risks from Flooding 54
Roger Few and Franziska Matthies
4 The Mental Health Aspects of Floods: Evidence from
England and Wales 89
Sue Tapsell and Sylvia Tunstall
5 The Mozambique Floods of 2000: Health Impact and
Response 111
Sandy Cairncross and Manuel Alvarinho
6 Coping with Floods in theM ekong Delta, Viet Nam 128
Pham Gia Tran and Roger Few
7 Flooding in the US: Responses from Government and the
Medical and Public Health Sectors 145
Christopher A. Ohl
8 Flood Hazards and Health: Implications for Action and
Research 168
Roger Few, Franziska Matthies, Mike Ahern and Sari Kovats
References 184
Index 213
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes
Figures
0.1 How flooding may impact upon health 3
1.1 Locations of extreme flood events, 1990-2004 1 1
1.2 Disaster management cycle 23
3.1 Enhancing capacity to cope with health risks: Generic themes 86
4.1 Extent of the autumn 2000 flooding 90
5.1 Southern Mozambique, showing the areas flooded in 2000 113
5.2 Diarrhoea reported in Gaza Province, 1999-2002 115
5.3 Cholera reported in Gaza Province, 1999-2002 115
5.4 Dysentery reported in Gaza Province, 1999-2002 116
5.5 Reported malaria in Gaza Province, 1999-2003 118
5.6 Annual growth in GDP, Mozambique, 1997-2000 1 19
6.1 The Mekong Delta, Viet Nam, showing the main flood-prone
areas 130
7.1 US# billion flooding disasters, 1980-2004 146
7.2 Health-related elements of local-level response to flooding 151
Tables
1.1 Causes of floods 9
1.2 Flood disasters by continent, 1990-2004 13
1.3 Wind storm disasters by continent, 1990-2004 14
2.1 Potential health effects of flooding 29
2.2 Mechanisms through which humans may be affected by flooding 29
2.3 Annual incidence of deaths per 10,000,000 population, for the
period 1980-1999 (reported data from EM-DAT database) 33
2.4 Circumstances of 190 deaths in 16 survey reports of flash floods,
US,1969-1981 35
2.5 Environmental classification system for water- and cxcrcta-rclatcd
infections 38
3.1 Household health and hygiene during disasters: Key themes 62
3.2 Examples of social and psychological intervention strategies 73
List of Figures, Tables and Boxes vii
3.3 A summary of health-related response mechanisms 84
4.1 Psychological health effects reported in the weeks or months after
flood, by gender 95
4.2 Results from General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) for
current health in the last few weeks 96
4.3 Significance of key factors identified in multivariate regression
analysis as influencing health measures used in the study 102
4.4 Factors identified as modifying flood exposure and recovery
impacts 103
5.1 Reported cases of diarrhoeal disease attributable to the 2000
floods in Gaza, and estimates of the number of deaths in the
population due to this cause 117
5.2 Annual change in GDP by province, Mozambique, 1997-2000 120
5.3 Estimated costs of reconstruction after Mozambique floods
(USS million) 124
6.1 Local-level interviews 132
6.2 Deaths from floods in An Giang and DongThap provinces 135
7.1 Typical problems faced by health facilities during flood disasters 154
7.2 Federal agencies responsible for planning for, and responding to,
flooding 161
Boxes
1.1 The terminology of‘risk’: Working definitions 20
1.2 Integrated approaches to warning and evacuation 25
2.1 Epidemiology of flood hazard 31
2.2 Global datasets on disaster death 32
2.3 Leptospirosis in Brazil 44
2.4 Symptoms and categories of mental illness 46
3.1 Perspectives on community involvement in disaster relief/recovery 60
3.2 Health care disruption during the 1998 floods in Bangladesh 70
3.3 Protecting health facilities in Latin America and the Caribbean 76
3.4 Effects of El Nino floods on water and sanitation in Ecuador and
Peru 78
3.5 Sphere standards for water and sanitation 81
5.1 Living with future floods in Mozambique 126
6.1 Action to reduce child drowning deaths 138
7.1 Flood early warning and dissemination in the US 162
8.1 Health aspects of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, 2004 170
About the Authors
Mike Ahern is a research fellow in the Public and Environmental Health
Research Unit, London School of Hygiene andTropical Medicine (LSHTA4),
UK, and is a member of the school’s Centre on Global Change and Health. He
has a background in geography (School of Oriental and African Studies) and
infectious disease control (LSHTM).The current focus of his research is on
the health effects of global environmental change and, in particular, the effects
of such change on communities in low-incomc countries.
Manuel Alvar inho isacivilengineerandhasbeen working for the Mozambique
government for more than 25 years in the wrater supply and sanitation sector.
He is a senior adviser to the government on policy and strategy formulation and
has been president of the Water Regulatory Council since December 1 999. He
is also a member of the World Bank’s Water and Sanitation Programme council
and serves on the board of the international network Building Partnerships for
Development in Water and Sanitation.
Sandy Cairncross, a public health engineer by training and an epidemiologist
by vocation, worked in Mozambique as a public health engineer from 1977
to 1984. He is now professor of environmental health at LSHTM, UK, and
a member ofWorking Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change. He is also the technical director of WELL, a resource centre on water
and environmental health for the UK Department for International Devel­
opment (DFID).
Roger Few is senior research fellow' in the School of Development Studies,
University of East Anglia, UK, and is an affiliated researcher of the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research. His rccent w'ork examines the linkages
between global environmental change, natural hazards and human health, with a
focus especially on the social and political dimensions of vulnerability, resilience
and adaptation. He currently holds an Economic and Social Research Council
(UK) Research Fellowship on climatic hazards, health risk and response in
developing countries.
Pham GiaTran is a lecturer in the Department of Geography, University of
Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National University, Viet Nam. He
is also a member of the university’s Centre for Research on Social Development
About the Authors ix
and Poverty Reduction. He has worked on several recent research projects on
flood risk policy and response within the Mekong Delta. Within this field he
has a special interest in vulnerability and coping mechanisms at the local scale
and in environmental and sanitation education.
Sari Kovats is a lecturer in environmental epidemiology at I.SHTA'I, UK.
Her research focuses on assessing the current and potential impacts of climate
on human population health. Recent work has focused on the epidemiology
of heatwaves and the public health impacts of weather extremes. She has
been an expert adviser on climate variability, climate change and health to
the World Health Organization (WHO), and is currently a lead author in the
Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC).
Franziska Matthies is visiting fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate
Change Research, UK, and research analyst for the German Advisory Council
on Global Change to the Federal Government. Her recent work looks at
the linkages between environmental change, human health and sustainable
development, and is situated at the interface between research and policy. An
assistant professor at the Department of International Health, University of
Copenhagen, Denmark, she is also involved in the design and coordination of
postgraduate courses in international health.
Christopher A. Ohl is an associate professor of medicine with the Section
of Infectious Diseases, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, US. He is
certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases by the American Board
of Internal Medicine. His academic interests include the development and
implementation of public health responses to emerging infections, antimicrobial
resistance, bioterrorism and natural disasters, including flooding. He is the
medical director for North Carolina’s Public Health Response and Surveillance
Team 5.
SueTapsell is a principal lecturer based at the Flood Hazard Research Centre,
School of Health and Social Sciences, at Middlesex University, UK. Her recent
focus has been on the ‘intangible’ impacts of flooding in the UK, in particular
the health and social effects on individuals, households and communities.
Other interests include public perception of flood risk, the social benefits
of river restoration, public participation in flood risk management and the
effectiveness of flood warning dissemination.
Sylvia Tunstall is an associate research manager and senior lecturer based at
the Flood Hazard Research Centre, School of Health and Social Sciences, at
Middlesex University, UK. She is a specialist in survey research methods whose
research has focused on public perceptions of river environments, including river
restoration schemes, children and rivers, flooding, flood warning systems, flood
defence and public consultation processes. Recent interests include the ‘intangible’
impacts of flooding and the effectiveness of flood warning dissemination.