Assessing Environmental and Health Impact of Drought in the Northwest Bangladesh

Abstract

Drought, the result of regional climatic variability is one of the dominant threats to environment. This study focuses on the biophysical, environmental and health issues concerning drought occurrence in northwest region of Bangladesh. Using both primary and secondary data, the analysis revealed that, during the drought period, rainfall as the dominant factor of supplying surface water and normalizing the dryness of the nature was almost 46% lower than the previous (normal) years. Similarly, average monthly sunshine hours in the drought year was about 7% higher compared to that of the normal year. On an average, groundwater level declined more than one meter compared to the previous years. Thus, many of the tubewells turned dry or failed to supply the required quantity of water for household and irrigation purposes. A significant number of surface water bodies including ponds, ditches, canals and streams had little volume of low quality water. In normal years, almost all households used hand tubewells (HTWs) as the major source of drinking water, while in the drought period only 90% households could use HTW water since substantial proportion of the HTWs turned dry. People had to collect drinking and domestic water from far distance to meet the basic requirements. Increase in temperature and prevalence of severe dust during drought periods compared to the normal years caused different health hazards including dysentery and diarrhoea due to unsafe drinking water.

Analysis of drought in Northwestern Bangladesh using standardized precipitation index and its relation to Southern oscillation index

“…The study area is northwestern part of Bangladesh, which is a hard-hit region among drought-prone areas in Bangladesh [62]. Monthly rainfall data, collected by the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD), was used in the study.…”

Farmers’ adaptation to water scarcity in drought-prone environments: A case study of Rajshahi District, Bangladesh

“…For instance, farmers' current practices of adopting groundwater irrigation to cope with the growing water scarcity in the north-west region of Bangladesh resulted in the drawdown of groundwater tables, land subsidence and tube wells failing during dry seasons (Adhikary et al, 2013;Zahid and Ahmed, 2006;Dey et al, 2011).…”

Health consequences of climate change in Bangladesh: An overview of the evidence, knowledge gaps and challenges

“…In addition to changes in temperature, both droughts and heavy precipitation have been implicated as being associated with increased risk of diarrheal diseases in Bangladesh. Decline in groundwater levels during droughts can force families reliant on tube wells to seek drinking water from other sources which may be contaminated leading to increased risk of exposure to diarrheal pathogens (Dey et al, ). Heavy rainfall and flooding events in Bangladesh, which can lead to contamination of drinking water (Wu, Yunus, Islam, & Emch, ), have been linked to increased occurrence of cholera, typhoid as well as diarrheal diseases caused by salmonellae, shigellae and E. coli (Cash et al, ; Schwartz et al, ; Wu, Yunus, et al, ).…”