The goal of public health is preventing illness and injury amongst a community. Bangladesh is already vulnerable to public health emergencies because of its poor sanitation infrastructure and lack of access to clean water. Right now, 85 million people in Bangladesh do not have access to “improved sanitation” (i.e., some method that separates feces from humans)[1]. This problem is exacerbated during the heavy rains of monsoon season because human waste tends to overflow into floodwater and water sources[1]. Though this problem affects all of Bangladesh, Dhaka’s high population density leads it to be especially vulnerable to overflowing sewage systems and contaminated water sources, which spread diarrhea and other diseases. Not only is human waste not properly disposed of, but many people in Bangladesh do not have access to fresh and clean water. Although 97% of people have access to water, an estimated 60% do not have access to clean and sanitary water[2]. This is a serious issue for public health because access to clean water is the main method of reducing the spread of many diseases, especially water-borne diseases[3]. Bangladesh already has poor public health infrastructure, and climate change is only expected to worsen this issue.
Public health risks due to climate change consist of water salinization levels and inadequate sanitation caused by a combination of flooding and inept sewage systems. Flooding, both due to severe monsoons and from storm surge after cyclones, has a strong capacity to spread disease. Flood water contaminates drinking water sources, especially the surface-water sources that many rural Bangladeshi people rely upon. Floods wash over everything, picking up waste, human/biological waste, and organic matter on the way. All of this contaminates water sources, causing the spread of many serious water-borne diseases, such as diarrhea, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery[3]. Deaths due to diarrheal disease are expected to increase by 6%, and diarrhea already causes 5% of childhood deaths in Bangladesh[3]. Saltwater floods also increase the salinization levels of water sources, which is dangerous to drink. Drinking ocean salt water causes dehydration because human kidneys cannot process salt at such high concentrations, so the body will excrete its water reserves with the extra salt. Already, 20 million people have high levels of salt in their drinking water, meaning that people in coastal regions can intake 50-100% of their recommended daily salt intake just by drinking water. These number is only expected to increase with a rise in sea levels and an increase in damage due to storm surge[3]. Furthermore, water left in natural depressions and ponds after floods attract mosquitos, which also spread fatal diseases. Pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable to these diseases[3]. Because of climate change, public health will be a serious issue for Bangladesh that needs to be addressed in order to save millions of people’s lives. This is not just a call to adapt to climate change, but a humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed.
Detailed plans for the solutions addressing risks to the affected area of Public Health are listed below.
Atmospheric Water Generation Community-Based Adaptation Rainwater Collection and Solar Distillation Urine Diverting Dry Toilets Waste Management Water Security
By Sarah Weidman
References
- Samiul Hasan. (1998). Problems of municipal waste management in Bangladesh: An inquiry into its nature. In Habitat International 22, no. 2, 191-202.
- Hedrick, Saima. (2017). Water in Crisis – Spotlight on Bangladesh. The Water Project. Retrieved from https://thewaterproject.org.
- Dewan, T. H. (2015). Societal impacts and vulnerability to floods in Bangladesh and Nepal. Weather and Climate Extremes 7, 36-42.