Health effects of climate change initiatives in Bangladesh Health effects of climate change initiatives in Bangladesh Health effects of climate change initiatives in Bangladesh Health effects of climate change initiatives in Bangladesh

1. Health effects of Climate Change
Initiatives in Bangladesh
Sheikh Fahim Faysal Sowrav
Email: sffsowrav@teachers.org

2. Climate & health effects in Bangladesh
• Bangladesh is vulnerable to
natural hazards and the future
effects of climate change.
– Deltaic plains of the Ganges,
Brahmaputra Meghna rivers
– Suffer from acute climate events –
floods, droughts, cyclones
– Long-term environmental
degradation → salinization & soil
degradation
– Effects likely to be exacerbated by
climate change & sea-level rise

3. Specific goals:
• Measure variation in solute composition in drinking water sources in coastal
villages, develop protocols for measuring urinary salt excretion in order to
design a cross-sectional study on hypertension and CVD risk.
• Perform exploratory hospital-based case-control study on association
between water source & (pre)clampsia among pregnant women in the same
area
• Define a set of markers of micronutrient intake that can be used assess
health impacts of floods in rural Bangladeshi women

4. CLIMATE CHANGE
Rainfall,
Monsoon
Snowmelt
Sea-level
rise
Runoff
River flow
Estuarine
intrusion
Saltwater
intrusion
[shallow
groundwater]
Surface water
salinity
[downstream]
[river]
Shrimp farming
Poor land
management
Pond water
[consumption]
Health
effects
Simplified causal diagram of salinity & health

5. Rainfall, flooding and droughts
• More than 80% of the 2,300 mm of annual precipitation in Bangladesh occurs during
the monsoon period
• A quarter of the country is currently flood-prone in a normal hydrological year, which
may increase up to 39% under climate change scenarios in the next century.
• Predictions:
– episodes of heavy rainfall and drought are likely to become more frequent and
severe
– increased frequency and severity of hot spells & heavy precipitation events are
expected to have negative impacts on crop yield and areas of cultivatable land

7. Floods
 Injuries
 Population displacement
 Adverse effects on food production
 Freshwater availability and quality
 Increased risk of infectious diseases - diarrhoeal diseases
 Toxic contamination
 Mental health
• Higher rates of stunting and wasting among flood exposed pre-
school children and higher rates of chronic energy deficiency among
flood exposed women (Del Ninno 2001).

8.  Acute and chronic nutritional problems
- undernutrition, protein-energy
malnutrition, micro-nutrient deficiency
 Infectious diseases
 Respiratory diseases
 Deaths
 Production of wheat and rice might no longer
be economically suitable under climate change.
 Protein-energy and micronutrient-related malnutrition have been
reported in children in post flood affected areas (ICDDR,B).
 A study found that drought, lack of food were associated with increased risk
of mortality from diarrhoeal diseases (Aziz 1991)
Low precipitation: drought

9. Floods, drought & micronutrient shortage
• A large segment of population in South Asian region including Bangladesh
suffer from micronutrient deficiencies
• Usually occurs in frequently flooded, low-lying areas where, over time,
micronutrients have been washed out of the soil
• Reflected in Bangladeshi soils: low level of certain minerals in rice,
vegetables, and staples of the rural and poor Bangladeshi diet
• Severe micronutrient deficiency in women, a common problem in rural
Bangladesh, increases the risk of bearing children with low birth weight, and
other health problems.
• Short and longer term impacts of flooding on micronutrient deficiency have
not been well researched.

10. The impact on women
• Women suffer disproportionately
more during disasters
– 70% of world’s poor are women
– Women account for the majority of
climate-related deaths
 Biological vulnerabilities:
– Nutrition
– Reproductive health
 Social vulnerabilities:
– Poverty
– Discrimination
– Stigma
– Sexual violence
• Need for international climate
policies to be gender aware

11. Capacity Building
• The study will support research capacity in
Bangladesh, building upon existing facilities and
experiences (BCAS, HEALS, KMC).
• Experience from HEALS will be used to develop
research tools and transfer of expertise to other
study areas.
• Training of nurses and interviewers to build an
infrastructure that can be used in future well-
designed studies on climate change effects in
Bangladesh.
• Training local scientists to monitor salinity in
drinking water
• Disseminate our research findings and foster
discussion among local community health
representatives, local political bodies, &
collaborators, for developing awareness &
adaptation strategies