Climate change is a major problem around the world, especially in landlocked countries. The sea level is rising in some places, a few places see a rise in salinity, other places are witnessing natural disasters like cyclones that are damaging the ecosystem, and before we can make up for it, another disaster hits us.
About 20-30% of the total cultivable land in the coastal areas of Bangladesh has become unusable due to salinity and researchers estimate that it will only increase with time. However, the scourge of salinity is not limited to agricultural land, it is also causing health problems.
While global warming, climate change and increasing salinity are being discussed at various political forums and political tables around the world, the people of Bangladesh are suffering from various health problems due to climate change.
A study published in 2016 found that salinity is increasing in groundwater and surface water in coastal areas of Bangladesh. As a result of drinking that water, the tendency of high blood pressure is increasing in people, especially pregnant mothers, who are suffering from various complications. Prolonged drinking and high salt intake can affect the average life expectancy of a person.
Many researchers say the government needs to think about this before the health problems caused by salinity in the southern part of Bangladesh become huge.
Acceptable Levels Of Salinity
According to World Health Organization guidelines, a person should consume a maximum of 2,000 milligrams of sodium a day in both food and drink. Excessive sodium intake can lead to health risks, especially when excess sodium causes high blood pressure, which can damage the kidneys involved in our excretory function. So, it is important to keep in mind that excess salt does not enter the body through food or soft drinks.
A Source Of Excess Salt
However, research on water sources in the coastal areas of Bangladesh shows that the average sodium level in drinking water has reached 600 mg per litre, somewhere up to 1,500 mg per litre, whereas the level of sodium in our normal drinking water should be 20-30 mg per litre.
We get most of our sodium from cooked food. However, the level of sodium in coastal waters, if a person drinks an average of two to two litres of water a day without food, is exceeding the safe level set by the World Health Organization.
Creating Social Problems
Climate change in the coastal areas of Bangladesh has caused visible damage to every ecosystem. Climate change is affecting agriculture, human land, economy, health and even behaviour. Like the other 10 changes, the increase in salinity levels is first hitting the lower and middle classes of the society, creating social inequality.
Due to salinity, the land is not producing crops, especially paddy and vegetable cultivation, like it used to earlier as their growth is dependent on soil salinity. Although research is being done on different varieties tolerant to salinity, they are not yet available to the farmers. As a result, marginal farmers, whose only source of livelihood is cultivating their land, are migrating to the cities, living as floating or uprooted people. On paper, these are known as climate refugees.
Again, many of those who have invested capital in their hands, i.e. the upper-class people of the society, are leaning towards shrimp farming. Others are trying to plant crops using high levels of fertilisers. Climate change is also increasing social inequality in the coastal areas, creating a new fragmented population.
Social inequality is also seen in the use of water sources in the villages of Bangladesh. The lower class collects water directly from ponds, wells or deep or shallow tube wells in the houses of government or well-to-do people. They have no access to safe drinking water but the rich and middle class enjoy more freedom in terms of access to water. In most cases, they can install deep tube wells or pumps to provide groundwater, which the lower class cannot.
In coastal areas, salinity is higher in the water table near the soil. Climate change has hit the coast of Bangladesh in the last 10 years with small and large volcanoes and cyclones; these have increased the salinity levels in ponds or canals far from the coast.
Seawater has created small pockets in different areas inside the plane. As a result, the salinity rate in the shallow tube wells is gradually increasing. As the marginalised people of Bangladesh depend on these sources for water collection, the first hand of salinity is falling on their necks.
Research On Health Issues
Health problems have become visible among the people of Bangladesh due to climate change, so many scientists are working on the extent to which climate change and salinity are associated with these health problems. Researchers from several universities and research institutes around the world, including Imperial College London; School of Hygiene; and Tropical Medicine, ICDDRB, Bangladesh, have been observing the coastal areas of Bangladesh for a long time. In particular, in various sources of water in Dakop, Batiaghata, Paikgachha areas of Khulna, salt levels have been observed in those sources.
The level of salt in the water is alarmingly high. And researchers have found a link between drinking this water and high blood pressure. Occupation, age, gender, eating habits, excess salt intake with food and different levels of headaches have been observed in people in this area who are suffering from relatively high blood pressure. And in most cases, it is because the salt in the water absorbs the excess salt.
Excess salt intake of 1.9 grams with food increases the risk of stroke by 32%. Research shows that people in the coastal areas of southern Bangladesh are taking this extra 1.9 grams of salt only from the water. Studies have shown that taking salt with a drink is more harmful than taking salt with food in high blood pressure. Since people have been consuming saltwater on a regular basis for a long time, if they do not take action now, it could become a major public health problem in the area in the long run.
What Can Bangladesh Do?
Bangladesh has always been weak in addressing the identified issues arising from the public health researchers report. Because these problems are not as devastating to humans as epidemics, high blood pressure caused by salinity is as much a public health problem as arsenic. The solution may be to retain rainwater, use modern technology to bring salinity in the water to a tolerable level, and so on.
With the water crisis in the coastal areas of Bangladesh, people are paying attention to these aspects and many are reaping the benefits. However, the lower class people of the society should also share in that success. Especially the people of rural and moose balls in Bangladesh who depend on someone else for water, do not have the capital to use rainwater for long periods of time or do not have the financial capacity to install salinity reduction technology.
As well as tackling and adapting to climate change, the ecosystem needs to be redesigned, keeping in mind the benefits of innovation of salinity tolerant varieties to reach farmers.