Urban Environmental Health in Bangladesh Slum: A Comparative Study of Two Metropolitan Cities

Abstract

This study aims to present a comparative study of socioeconomic, physical and urban environmental health condition of two metropolitan cities in Bangladesh. Slums both from Khulna and Rajshahi city were selected for this study. Although both primary and secondary data were used, this study was mainly based on primary data gathered through household questionnaire survey. In order to determine the socio-economic, physical and environmental situations, only those who were the beneficiaries of the UNICEF project were interviewed. The study finds that poor socioeconomic status and inadequacy of urban services has had an immediate effect on urban health special the slum poor in metropolitan cities in the country. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jsf.v8i1-2.14628 J. Sci. Foundation, 8(1&2): 67-76, June-December 2010

Cities, slums, and child nutrition in Bangladesh

“…The 2006BUHS reports (NIPORT et al, 2008 and case studies using other data find that slum residents generally have poor mean socioeconomic circumstances and outcomes (e.g., see Hossain, Moniruzzaman, & Islam, 2010;Islam, Farukuzzaman, & Islam, 2014;Nahar & Rahman, 2013). The findings are consistent with evidence for slum residents globally (e.g., see United Nations-Habitat, 2016).…”

Universal Health Coverage and Environmental Health: An Investigation in Decreasing Communicable and Chronic Disease by Including Environmental Health in UHC

“…Concurrently, poverty rates and the number of people living in hunger have declined up to 30% since the 1970s as well [22]. All of these factors have also helped individuals to live longer; the life expectancy in Bangladesh (70 years) exceeds the global average of 69 years [23].…”

“…Vector-borne diseases are unequally distributed across the population and consist primarily of dengue fever and malaria. Below is a chart highlighting the access to unimproved water and sanitation services, the major contributors of diarrhea, a condition which kills over 2 million children under ive annually in Bangladesh [22] (see Figure 4).…”

“…In a country whose population exceeds 156 million people and is embedded deep within South Asia (a continent that contains of nearly 40% of the world's poverty) it is a feat that they have accomplished so much over the past four decades [21,22]. With the help of the World Health Organization, Bangladesh has met a multitude of Millennium Development Goals over these four decades, particularly in terms of maternal and child health.…”

“…Because environmental health includes factors determined by not only environmental exposures, but also SES, and therefore political inluences and built environment, EH is a multisectoral problem, which requires an equivalently holistic solution [22]. USAID's Country Oice for Bangladesh is aimed at building capacity of pertinent government organizations to "reduce environmental health risks through research, policy advice, and awareness raising activities" [24].…”