Stressed, anxious, and sick from the floods: A photovoice study of climate extremes, differentiated vulnerabilities, and health in Old Fadama, Accra, Ghana

Abstract

Although there is a large and growing literature on anticipated climate change impacts on health, we know very little about the linkages between differentiated vulnerabilities to climate extremes and adverse physical and mental health outcomes. In this paper, we examine how recurrent flooding interacts with gendered vulnerability, social differentiation, and place-related historical and structural processes to produce unequal physical and mental health outcomes. We situated the study in Old Fadama, Ghana, using a Photovoice approach (n = 20) and theoretical concepts from political ecologies of health and feminist political ecology. Overall, the study revealed several adverse physical and mental health impacts of flooding, with vulnerability differentiated based particularly on gender and age, but also housing, class, and income. Our findings suggest the need for greater attentiveness to social differentiation in scholarship involving political ecologies of health. The paper builds on the health and place literature by linking the social and contextual to the medical.

Keywords: Climate extremes; Differentiated vulnerability; Feminist political ecology; Physical and mental health; Political ecology of health.