Household food insecurity after the early monsoon flash flood of 2017 among wetland (Haor) communities of northeastern Bangladesh: a cross‐sectional study

Parvez, Mahmood; Islam, Mir Raihanul; Dey, Nepal C.

doi:10.1002/fes3.326

Cited by 21 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…However, the odds ratio of households being severely food insecure in the Sylhet division decreased by seven-fold after the intervention. Another study conducted in the same region immediately after the flash floods of 2107 found that 38% of households overall and 24% of ultra-poor households were food-secure ( 21 ); these values are higher than our survey data. However, Suchana only enrolled poor and very poor households in dire financial distress from the most vulnerable villages ( 15 ).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

Food security status of Suchana-participating households in north-eastern rural Bangladesh

Haque

Choudhury

Ahmed

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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Despite achieving remarkable progress, food insecurity remains a major public health challenge in Bangladesh, and severe food insecurity status has not been reduced in susceptible areas and vulnerable regions in Bangladesh. Wetlands that are susceptible to flooding can be found in Bangladesh's north-eastern Sylhet division. Suchana, a large-scale nutrition programme, implemented nutrition-specific and sensitive interventions in poor and very poor households in Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh. The aim of this article is to assess the association between the Suchana intervention and household food security status among poor and very poor households in north-eastern rural Bangladesh using the Suchana baseline and endline survey databases. The baseline survey was conducted between November 2016 and February 2017, while the endline survey was undertaken 3 years later, during the same months. The outcome variable in this analysis was household food security status, which was measured using the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance's Guideline. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the data; after controlling for the union as a cluster and relevant covariates, a multiple multinomial logistic regression model was used to estimate the independent effect of the Suchana intervention as an exposure. Overall, 14.0% of households were food secure at the baseline survey (intervention: 14.1%, control: 14.0%) and 22.0% were food secure (intervention: 26.6%, control: 20.2%) at the endline survey. For households in the intervention area in comparison to the control area, the odds of being moderately food insecure [aOR: 1.36 (1.05, 1.76), p < 0.05], mildly food insecure [aOR: 1.83 (1.33, 2.51), p < 0.001], or food secure [aOR: 2.21 (1.47, 3.33), p < 0.001] compared to being severely food insecure was significantly higher. Thus, we infer that the 3 years of Suchana intervention marginally increased household food security status among the socio-economically disadvantaged population in north-eastern rural Bangladesh. If concerns regarding gender equity, women's education, and income-generating activities are addressed, the population could experience even greater benefits in food security. In order to overcome these challenges, all stakeholders including programme implementers and policymakers should work together to implement the appropriate measures.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 88%

Food security status of Suchana-participating households in north-eastern rural Bangladesh

Haque

Choudhury

Ahmed

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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“…More frequent flooding will exacerbate these nutritional insults, and the flood‐induced economic consequences of poorer fishing income and spikes in food inflation will further stress household finances and families' ability to meet basic caloric and nutritional requirements. Although policy interventions in Bangladesh that subsidize food production and imported food relief have helped to suppress inflation to an extent and stave off severe famine following major crop losses (del Ninno et al, 2003; Dorosh & Shahabuddin, 2002; Reuters, 2021), more work is needed, especially among lower‐income rice‐consumers, to stabilize household nutrition throughout worsening natural disasters and economic hardship (Parvez et al, 2022; Timmer, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Flooding in low‐income areas has been linked with an increased risk of disease, such as diarrhea (Biswas et al, 1999; Mondal et al, 2001), cholera (Sur et al, 2000), and respiratory infection (Biswas et al, 1999). It is also associated with greater food insecurity (Morshed et al, 2022; Parvez et al, 2022) and poor growth and nutritional outcomes (Choudhury & Bhuiya, 1993; del Ninno & Lundberg, 2005; Rodriguez‐Llanes et al, 2011; Stewart et al, 1990). Growth and nutritional outcomes are useful to examine because they are important indicators of diet as well as overall health.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic impacts and nutritional outcomes of the 2017 floods in Bangladeshi Shodagor fishing families

Starkweather

Keith

Zohora

et al. 2022

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives As climate change continues to increase the frequency and severity of flooding in Bangladesh and globally, it becomes increasingly critical to understand the pathways through which flooding influences health outcomes, particularly in lower‐income and subsistence‐based communities. We aim to assess economic pathways that link flooding to nutritional outcomes among Shodagor fishing families in Bangladesh. Methods We examine longitudinal economic data on kilograms of fish caught, the income earned from those fish, and household food expenditures (as a proxy for dietary intake) from before, during, and after severe flooding in August–September of 2017 to enumerate the impacts of flooding on Shodagor economics and nutrition. We also analyze seasonally collected anthropometric data to model the effects of flooding and household food expenditures on child growth rates and changes to adult body size. Results While Shodagor fishing income declined during the 2017 flooding, food expenditures simultaneously spiked with market inflation, and rice became the predominant expenditure only during and immediately following the flood. Our nutritional models show that children and adults lost more body mass in households that spent more money on rice during the flood. Shodagor children lost an average of 0.36 BMI‐for‐age z‐scores and adults lost an average of 0.32 BMI units during the flooded 2017 rainy season, and these metrics continued to decline across subsequent seasons and did not recover by the end of the study period in 2019. Conclusions These results show major flood‐induced economic impacts that contributed to loss of child and adult body mass among Shodagor fishing families in Bangladesh. More frequent and severe flooding will exacerbate these nutritional insults, and more work is needed to effectively stabilize household nutrition throughout natural disasters and economic hardship.

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“…The study describes how people in the haor landscape are being affected by the new "silent" disaster of increased sedimentation, and the critical factors that trigger this increase. Typically, the haor communities witness increased poverty, poor sanitation facilities, and inadequate educational facilities due to their geographical vulnerability to flash floods, seasonal unavailability of communication infrastructure, and inadequate civic amenities, as also shown by other studies (Choudhury et al, 2019;Kamal et al, 2018;Parvez et al, 2021;Rahman et al, 2018;Shahidullah et al, 2020).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

How Do Vulnerable People in Bangladesh Experience Environmental Stress From Sedimentation in the Haor Wetlands? An Exploratory Study

Islam

Haq

Ahmed

et al. 2022

Water Resources Research

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Introduction and BackgroundThe haor landscape (Figure 1) comprises a large, shallow tectonic depression in the northeastern part of Bangladesh that becomes inundated to a depth of 5 m or more during the monsoonal annual rainy season. Haor covers an area of approximately 2 million hectares (19,998 km 2 ) and supports a population of 19.37 million people (Chakraborty et al., 2021;Kamal et al., 2018). The haor basin is actively subsiding, and its hydrological, topographical, geomorphological, and socioeconomic features are distinctive as compared to other parts of Bangladesh (Chakraborty, Mondal, et al., 2012;IUCN, 2015). The geology of the haor basin consists of 13-20 km thick alluvial and deltaic deposits underlain by gneisses and granites, and the basin is bounded by the Shillong Plateau to the north (Figure 1), the Indo-Burman Range to the east, and the Indian Shield to the west. Non-calcareous, non-saline gray alluvium and acidic, alkaline clays are the most common soils within the basin (DBHWD, 2017), which is predominantly topographically flat but possesses some low hills that are covered with rainforest, tea and rubber plantations. The haor is very close to the towns of Cherrapunji (Figure 1) and Mawsynram, which are considered to be the rainiest places in the world, with an average annual rainfall of 11,755 mm and an average rainfall of 1,700 and 7,400 mm in the pre-and post-monsoon seasons, respectively (Basher et al., 2018;Rahman et al., 2020). As a result, the haor region receives significant runoff from 23 small transboundary rivers, including the Surma-Baulai, Kalni-Kushiyara, and Kangsa-Dhanu rivers, which originate in the hill regions of neighboring India. Seventy percent of the total catchment area of these rivers depends on three Indian States: Meghalaya, Assam, and Tripura (CEGIS, 2012). This abundant runoff enables the annual flooding of the haor region (Figure 2) to depths of 5-7 m, and much of the area is thus characterized by regular yearly inundation.

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Household food insecurity after the early monsoon flash flood of 2017 among wetland (Haor) communities of northeastern Bangladesh: a cross‐sectional study

Cited by 21 publications

References 61 publications

Food security status of Suchana-participating households in north-eastern rural Bangladesh

Food security status of Suchana-participating households in north-eastern rural Bangladesh

Economic impacts and nutritional outcomes of the 2017 floods in Bangladeshi Shodagor fishing families

How Do Vulnerable People in Bangladesh Experience Environmental Stress From Sedimentation in the Haor Wetlands? An Exploratory Study

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