Drinking Water Salinity and Infant Mortality in Coastal Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh, with two-thirds of its land area less than five meters above sea level, is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Low-lying coastal districts along the Bay of Bengal are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise, tidal flooding, storm surges, and climate-induced increases in soil and water salinity. This paper investigates the impact of drinking water salinity on infant mortality in coastal Bangladesh. It focuses on the salinity of drinking water consumed during pregnancy, which extensive medical research has linked to maternal hypertension, preeclampsia, and post-partum morbidity and mortality. The study combines spatially-formatted salinity measures for 2001-09 provided by Bangladesh with individual and household survey information from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Surveys for 2004 and 2007. It uses probit and logit analyses to estimate mortality probability for infants less than two months old. Controlling for many other determinants of infant mortality, the analysis finds high significance for salinity exposure during the last month of pregnancy and no significance for exposure during the preceding months. The estimated impact of salinity on infant mortality is comparable in magnitude to the estimated effects of traditionally-cited variables such as maternal age and education, gender of the household head, household wealth, toilet facilities, drinking water sources, and cooking fuels.

Spatio-temporal patterns of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia in relation to drinking water salinity at the district level in Bangladesh from 2016 to 2018

“…Since then, three studies have also linked drinking water salinity and blood pressure among a small sample of the general population (Scheelbeek et al 2016), among young adults (Talukder et al 2016), and a survey of the general population through the Assessing Health, Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation in Populous Deltas (ESPA Deltas) project (Nahian et al 2018). Another study detected a link between drinking water salinity and infant mortality using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data (Dasgupta et al 2015).…”

Toward Successful Development Policies: Insights from Research in Development Economics

“…As sea level rises and storm-caused inundations increase in severity and frequency, the resulting soil and water salinization will reduce the availability of food, harm maternal and child health (including higher infant mortality), damage a World Heritage site, and lead to outmigration that increases poverty among those vulnerable family members left behind. 123,124,125 These problems are hardly unique to southwest coastal Bangladesh. Climate variability has been shown to have adverse impacts on household welfare in rural Mexico, due in particular to challenges in smoothing out fluctuations in agricultural incomes.…”

Global Gender and Environment Outlook 2016

“…Rates of preeclampsia and gestational hypertension in pregnant women living in coastal areas have been shown to be higher than those for women living inland (Khan et al 2011;Khan et al 2008). Drinking water salinity (Box 2.5.3) is also a significant determinant of infant mortality in coastal areas, especially for infants born to women who drink highly saline water in the late stages of pregnancy (Dasgupta et al 2015).…”