The study was executed in Noakhali sadar (urban) and Subarnachar upazil (rural) to determine the drinking water quality and sanitation facilities. The baseline data was collected based on questionnaire survey. And the physicochemical and ionic constituents of drinking water were determined by analyzing water samples. The result showed that in rural areas about 87.5% families utilized tube-well water and the rest used polluted pond water, while in the urban areas, 91% families utilized supplied water by paying monthly. The sanitation situation in the rural area was not at satisfactory level. The mean values of several critical parameters from the two areas (rural and urban) were found to be the following. pH values were 7.10 and 7.63, respectively. Electric conductivity was found to be 530.17 and 768.76 μS/cm, respectively. Salinity value was 0.23 and 0.35 ppt, respectively. Total dissolved solid (TDS) was found to be 264.91 and 372.82 ppm, respectively. Elemental composition of the sampled water from the two areas were also obtained. Mean values of the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) from the two areas were found to be 7.24 and 7.52 mg/l, respectively. Among the other elements, amount of phosphorus was 0.55 and 0.46 ppm, potassium was 43.82 and 35.82 mg/l, sulfate was 10.03 and 1.00 mg/l, chloride was 42.15 and 149.95 mg/l, and iron was 5.57 and 1.30 mg/l, respectively. It is clear that the drinking water quality for both areas was not good for direct consumption. The situation in the rural areas is worse than that in the urban areas. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. March 2019, 5(1): 37-47

Most of the cities in the world, a solid waste recycling process is a part of the effective and sustainable waste management system. Although the local authorities ignore the recyclable solid waste materials during waste management activity, a number of self-waste collectors and dealers have been performing recycling activity as a source of acquirement for long periods of time in Bangladesh. In our present study, a traditional recycling practice of solid waste was executed and analyzed in Sadar Upazila of Noakhali, Bangladesh. This study also identified a complete concatenation from waste collectors to recycling industries in different private sectors. The study revealed that 41% metal, 37% paper, 14% tin and 8% plastic of Sonapur was recycled daily. On the other hand, the study also revealed that 44% metal, 21% paper, 19% tin and 16% plastic of Maijdee was recycled daily. The shop owners were only interested with Recyclable Solid Wastes (RSW). RSW collected by the shop owners including glass, paper, plastic, iron, tin etc. All the recyclable materials were collected and transported in different industries of Dhaka. For new products, those retrieved materials were used as raw materials.