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. 2019 Oct 4;16(19):3746.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16193746.

Health Implications of Drinking Water Salinity in Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Rishika Chakraborty  1 , Khalid M Khan  2 , Daniel T Dibaba  3 , Md Alfazal Khan  4 , Ali Ahmed  5 , Mohammad Zahirul Islam  6
Affiliations

Health Implications of Drinking Water Salinity in Coastal Areas of Bangladesh

Rishika Chakraborty et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Coastal areas in South Asian countries are particularly vulnerable to elevated water salinity. Drinking water salinity has been found to be associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD), diarrhea, and abdominal pain. Our study aimed to find if excess drinking water salinity was associated with increased hospital visits with an array of health effects in coastal sub-districts of Bangladesh. A cross-sectional study was conducted with 157 participants from three coastal sub-districts. A face-to-face interview was conducted to collect salinity exposure and hospital visit data. Water samples were collected from both drinking and other household water sources for the measurement of salinity and total dissolved solids (TDS). CVD, diarrhea, and abdominal pain related hospital visits were found to be significantly associated with high water salinity and TDS. Households exposed to high salinity demonstrated a higher frequency of hospital visits than the low salinity-exposed households. People exposed to high salinity seemed to lack awareness regarding salinity-inducing health effects. Water salinity is a public health concern that will continue to rise due to climate change. Therefore, raising awareness about the health risks of water salinity is essential for the government to frame policies and mitigation strategies to control this emerging threat.

Keywords: coastal Bangladesh; health effects; hospitalization; water salinity.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Perceptions on water salinity from high and low salinity communities. Note: Bars shows %(n) values. * p value = 0.002; # p value < 0.0001; ⋆ p value = 0.003; ‡ p value = 0.005.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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