While Faten, 20 years old, an agricultural wage worker on Al-Salam Island in Al-Ayat, was working to harvest the land, she fainted after suffering from sunstroke and gastrointestinal disease, as a result of working under direct sunlight.
Faten was forced to stop working on the agricultural land for two days in order to recover from sunstroke and gastroenteritis, which caused her to lose about 100 pounds for each day of work, which is the wage she receives for her work in harvesting the land.
While Saada, 40 years old, the owner of agricultural land in Al-Ayat, is keen to go out before dawn every day, during the summer months, to begin her work on the land, which is a source of income for her and her family, and she assists her husband, who works as a mosque imam, and she tries to finish her work by the hour. 10 am to avoid the heat of the sun.
Saada says that despite her attempts to avoid the heat of the sun, during the harvest period she is forced to work during the noon hours, which results in her suffering from sunstroke, but she cannot stop working because she is responsible for cultivating the land.
Faten and Saada are among the thousands of women working in the agricultural field in Egypt, which is the field most affected by rising temperatures, and they are among the millions around the world who are at risk of losing their jobs as a result of the extreme high temperatures and the resulting heat stress, according to a report Issued by the International Labor Organization.
Job loss
According to the International Labor Organization, high temperatures have effects of varying severity on different work sectors. Work that requires high physical effort or working for a long period under the sun and in the open air will have a high temperature impact.
The impact on the agriculture and construction sectors is expected to be the worst. In 1995, the agriculture sector alone accounted for about 83% of total job losses globally, and will account for 60% of total job losses by 2030.
Labor productivity losses resulting from heat stress are concentrated in areas that already suffer from unstable labor market conditions, such as high rates of vulnerable employment and worker poverty. In addition, heat stress is more common in agriculture and construction, two sectors characterized by a high level of informality.
In the cases of Faten and Saada, they are among the informal workers. Faten works seasonally in harvesting the land for a daily wage that has risen to 100 pounds from 50 pounds, and she is forced to work alongside her in a clothing factory in order to be able to provide a suitable income for herself.
Saada works on land that belongs to her and her family, and is unable to provide her own income from it. She works to support her children, both of whom are outside any legal or health protection umbrella, and bear the material losses resulting from climate change and heat stress.
Women are most affected
In a research study issued by Center of Man and the City For Human and Social Research (a multidisciplinary research center concerned with the fields of economic and social rights), women constitute about 58% of agricultural workers in Egypt, 99% of whom work informally, that is, they do not have employment contracts or social or health insurance, and 38% are seasonal workers.
Therefore, climate change poses a threat to their working conditions, as rising temperatures or increased rainfall lead to a reduction in their working hours. According to the International Labor Organization, the North African region is expected to lose about 4.8 hours of working hours in 2030 due to rising temperatures, which is what Faten and Saada are suffering from now. They are forced to stop working at ten in the morning, to avoid working during the afternoon, when temperatures are high.
The health risks they can suffer from are severe exhaustion and sunstroke, all of which will be reflected in their economic conditions. Seasonal workers, such as girls, receive a daily wage, and others do not receive a wage because they work for the benefit of the family, as in the case of Saada.
Dr. Sawsan Al-Awadhi, an expert in environmental sciences and climate change, believes that women are more affected by rising temperatures than men, especially in the field of agriculture.
About 43% of the agricultural workforce in developing countries are women, and about 70 % women working in South Asia work in agriculture, as well as more than 60 % women working in sub-Saharan Africa working in agriculture, According to UN Women.
Women make up less than 20% of landowners in the world, and less than 5 % of all agricultural landowners in North Africa and West Asia.
According to Al-Awadhi, the impact of climate change on women will be in two ways. The first is the loss of their work as a result of the loss of agricultural land, as well as changes in crop productivity.
The second is the health effects, and Al-Awadhi explains that women’s body temperatures are higher than men’s, which has an impact on blood circulation and reproductive health, and exposes them to higher heat stress than men.
While Mirihan Fouad, an activist in the fields of women’s rights and the environment and founder of the “Feminists for Climate” initiative, tends to divide women into categories, and explains that in the case of female agricultural workers, it must be taken into account whether they are elderly, pregnant women, or young women. Or they have chronic diseases.
The same applies to men as well, and therefore the effect of temperatures differs on each group. For some of these groups, high temperatures may cause them to suffer from sunstroke and a feeling of weakness, and may lead to death.
Merihan adds that, in general, women are more vulnerable than men and are poorer, explaining that there is a term called the feminization of poverty, and that work does not take into account the social roles of women, which forces some women to accept weak financial compensation in order to be able to fulfill the responsibilities they bear.
She emphasizes the necessity of including the concept of gender when talking about climate change, identifying the affected groups, and then demanding a social protection network, especially since most of the agricultural workers are women and are informal.
How do we deal with heat stress?
Dr. Ibrahim El-Meligy, a consultant at Helwan Fever Hospital, explains the difference between heat exhaustion and sunstroke, saying that sunstroke occurs as a result of direct exposure to the sun during peak hours (9 a.m. - 4 p.m.) in the summer.
Heat stress is exposure to heat and can occur inside the home, if you are in a poorly ventilated room. In that case, the body temperature rises to between 40 to 41 degrees Celsius, and the problem is that the temperature-regulating center in the brain stops and does not respond to antipyretics.
The Helwan Fever Consultant explains first aid to combat heat stress, which is to lower the body temperature by placing the injured person in a cool place and turning on the fans, then taking off his clothes and putting him under water, then wrapping him in a sheet while he is naked, and putting him under the air conditioner.
After lowering the body temperature, if the injured person is able to swallow, he can take one of the fever-reducing medications.
He stresses that if such first aid is not available, the injured person must be transported immediately to the hospital.
In order for workers who are forced to work in places exposed to the sun to avoid heat exhaustion, Dr. Ibrahim says that they must have a sunshade, put on a sunscreen or head covering especially for workers during the peak period, drink water every 10 minutes, take a break every hour and sprinkle water over the head. In addition to stopping work at temperatures ranging from 38 to 39 degrees Celsius.
In our conversation with Saada and Faten, they both indicated that working under high temperatures caused them to suffer from skin infections, dry hands, and the appearance of pimples on the body.
This was confirmed by Dr. Ibrahim, who said, “High temperatures affect the skin and cause skin burns, peeling, inflammation, and dryness of the eyes. Therefore, we advise workers to close and open their eyes because that moisturizes the pupil. It is possible to use a towel and place it on the face and eyes.”
Women are also affected by high temperatures more than men, as they have more subcutaneous fat and are smoother. Men have a thicker layer of skin, so the sun causes burns and inflammation in the face in women, and it begins to become red and inflamed, and they must apply sunscreen or use a skin conditioner.
Faten and Saada are facing the extreme rise in temperatures with their simple methods in light of the absence of measures to adapt to climate change and the extreme heat. Faten and her colleagues wear the niqab while working in the fields to avoid direct exposure to the sun’s rays, while Saada starts her day before sunrise in the hope that she can complete the work before the intense heat. In the noon hours.
*This report was produced within the framework of the training program on climate journalism organized by the Egyptian Women Journalists Union in cooperation with the Climate School Initiative, and was published in Social Press website On September 15, 2023.
