In recent weeks, heavy rainfall in northeastern Nigeria submerged entire residential areas, displacing tens of thousands of people, destroying farmland and businesses and spreading waterborne diseases such as diarrhea and malaria.
But, as hospitals face a humanitarian crisis in the wake of that flooding, heavy rains have also hampered access to health facilities or even put them out of commission entirely.
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In Assam, India, when a cyclone knocked out power and communication in the entire area for nearly five days, this solar-powered hospital was the only one still fully functional, showing how essential renewable energy can be beneficial during emergencies," Lanvin Concessao from WRI India told DW in a statement.
Rural hospitals in India aren't just using solar to power their facilities, but to cool them, too. In the ancient town of Raichur in southern India, a government maternity center is using solar-powered ceiling fans to offer relief to newborn babies and their mothers during periods of extreme heat, for instance.
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Some US hospitals are going further and looking at ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Cleveland Clinic, a health care facility in the Midwestern state of Ohio, is working to make its operating rooms more environmentally friendly by reducing waste, energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. Operating rooms require a lot of energy to run and produce a lot of waste.
"What we do in our hospitals is meant to improve our communities, but our buildings, the materials we use and how we practice can negatively affect people's health," said one doctor involved in the project in a statement, adding that the clinic wants to protect peoples' health by protecting the environment.
Making sure hospitals can still operate in climate-linked extreme weather events isn't enough - the health care sector has to deal with its own emissions too, said WRI India's Concessao.
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