* Changes now to build resilience and avoid flood damage are cost effective, experts say
By Meghie Rodrigues
SAO PAULO, March 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Last December, when physician Victor Heitor Gomes became health director for Rafard, a municipality 150 km northwest of São Paulo, he knew he had a challenge ahead.
The only clinic in the town of 9,000 had been through hard times: heavy rains in mid-November caused part of a meeting room wall to collapse and a month later more rain flooded parts of the building, including the surgery room and common areas.
The problems forced the clinic to relocate some services to other rooms – and repairing the meter-long hole in the meeting room wall had to be put on hold because of ongoing rain in the Brazilian summer.