This document summarizes the salinity risk assessment in Bangladesh. It finds that salinity is a major issue for the coastal region of Bangladesh, affecting over 35 million people in 19 districts. Salinity has increased the amount of affected land area from 8,330 square km in 1973 to 10,560 square km in 2009. This salinity is damaging agriculture and increasing costs of crop production. The government of Bangladesh is taking steps to address salinity through projects, but some projects have failed or been completed slowly. Overall salinity poses serious economic and infrastructure risks for Bangladesh.

1. Presented by
Nahin Mahfuz Seam
Roll: 09
Course ID:109
(studies of Disaster Management)
BEcon in Environmental and Resource Economics
Dhaka School of Economics
(constituent institution of the University of Dhaka)
Salinity Risk Assessment in
Bangladesh

2. Introduction
 Risk :The probability of harmful consequences,
or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property,
livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or
environment damaged) resulting from interactions
between natural or human-induced hazards and
vulnerable conditions.
 Risk assessment is a methodology to determine
the nature and extent of risk by analyzing
potential threats and evaluating existing
conditions of vulnerability that could pose a
potential threat to property, livelihoods and the
environment on which they depend.

3. The coast of Bangladesh consists of 19
districts, covers 32% of the country and
accommodates more than 35 million people.
Increasing salinity is a crucial issue to the
people of the coastal region of Bangladesh.

4.  Due to increasing salinity in the water
and soil, the people of the region are
suffering from scarcity of safe
drinking water, irrigation, agriculture
and other uses. A recent study
indicates that the salinity affected
area has increased from 8330 square
km in 1973 to 10560 square km in
2009 .
Ref :(Soil Resource Development Institute, 2010)

5. Main affected areas in
Bangladesh
Satkhira
Khulna
Bagerhat
Pirozpur
Jhalukhati
Barisal
Patuakhali
Chittagong
Cox’s Bazar
Noakhali
Bhola

6. 0.087
0.45
0.191
0.297
Very strong
Strong
Moderate
Slight
Measurement of Salinity affected
areas
 In million hectares.

7. Salinity is one of the most severe
environmental factors limiting the
productivity of agricultural crops. Most
crops are sensitive to salinity caused by
high concentration of salts in the soil. As
yield of crop production had been reduced
due to salinity, the cost of production had
gradually increased.

8.  In addition to this enormous financial cost of
production, there are other serious impacts of
salinity on infrastructure, water supplies, on soil
structure and stability of communities. In this
situation management of salinity intrusion is the
vital issue for Bangladesh.
Pricing of per 40 kg crops
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
2005 2010 2015

9. Salinity control technique
 Tidal Regulations: Tidal regulations are used to stop
the entry of sea water.
 physical Barrier: Subsurface physical barriers such
as sheet pile, cutoff walls, clay slurry trenches under
earth dams, and impermeable clay walls are routinely
used by engineers in the field to control the
movement of water
 Freshwater Injection Barriers: a typical injection
barrier in operation to control the saltwater intrusion
for cases where the sea level is in excess of
freshwater levels.
 Extraction Barriers: Extraction barriers have been
used in various locations in order to prevent or reduce
saltwater intrusion.

10. Government of Peoples republic of
Bangladesh takes some step to reduce
the salinity problem but Due to lack of
capacity of LGIs, cannot take initiative to
protect coastal polder, embankment, road
and any kind of infrastructure as well as
unplanned shrimp culture.

11. conclusion
 Thus from the above study we can understand the
effect of the salinity and how worse it can be for all. It
should be taken seriously and the government has
taken it seriously in many extend and done many
projects for the betterment. The completion of the
projects in the slower side and there are failures in
some of the projects too. Still the government is doing
a lot and some of its projects are successful in reducing
the Salinity ingress.

12. Reference
 http://srdi.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/srdi.portal.g
ov.bd/publications/bc598e7a_df21_49ee_882e_0302c974
015f/Soil%20salinity%20report-Nov%202010.pdf
 http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.s.plant.201401.02.html#S
ec3.3.3
 http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/salinity/alla
boutsalinity.pdf
 http://www.qmdc.org.au/publications/download/690/websit
e-pdfs/land-soils/salinity-risk-assessment-for-the-
queensland-murray-darling-region.pdf
 http://www.pakbs.org/pjbot/PDFs/38(5)/PJB38(5)1359.pdf

13. Thank you