Salinity Risk Assessment in Bangladesh

Presented byNahin Mahfuz SeamRoll: 09Course ID:109 (studies of Disaster Management)BEcon in Environmental and Resource Economics Dhaka School of Economics(constituent institution of the University of Dhaka)

Salinity Risk Assessment in Bangladesh

IntroductionRisk :The probability of harmful consequences, or expected losses (deaths, injuries, property, livelihoods, economic activity disrupted or environment damaged) resulting from interactions between natural or human-induced hazards and vulnerable conditions.

Risk assessment is a methodology to determine the nature and extent of risk by analyzing potential threats and evaluating existing conditions of vulnerability that could pose a potential threat to property, livelihoods and the environment on which they depend.

The coast of Bangladesh consists of 19 districts, covers 32% of the country and accommodates more than 35 million people. Increasing salinity is a crucial issue to the people of the coastal region of Bangladesh.

Due to increasing salinity in the water and soil, the people of the region are suffering from scarcity of safe drinking water, irrigation, agriculture and other uses. A recent study indicates that the salinity affected area has increased from 8330 square km in 1973 to 10560 square km in 2009 .Ref :(Soil Resource Development Institute, 2010)

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Main affected areas in Bangladesh

SatkhiraKhulnaBagerhat Pirozpur Jhalukhati Barisal Patuakhali Chittagong Coxs Bazar Noakhali Bhola

Measurement of Salinity affected areas

In million hectares.

Salinity is one of the most severe environmental factors limiting the productivity of agricultural crops. Most crops are sensitive to salinity caused by high concentration of salts in the soil. As yield of crop production had been reduced due to salinity, the cost of production had gradually increased.

In addition to this enormous financial cost of production, there are other serious impacts of salinity on infrastructure, water supplies, on soil structure and stability of communities. In this situation management of salinity intrusion is the vital issue for Bangladesh.

Pricing of per 40 kg crops

Salinity control technique Tidal Regulations: Tidal regulations are used to stop the entry of sea water. physical Barrier: Subsurface physical barriers such as sheet pile, cutoff walls, clay slurry trenches under earth dams, and impermeable clay walls are routinely used by engineers in the field to control the movement of water Freshwater Injection Barriers: a typical injection barrier in operation to control the saltwater intrusion for cases where the sea level is in excess of freshwater levels. Extraction Barriers: Extraction barriers have been used in various locations in order to prevent or reduce saltwater intrusion.

Government of Peoples republic of Bangladesh takes some step to reduce the salinity problem but Due to lack of capacity of LGIs, cannot take initiative to protect coastal polder, embankment, road and any kind of infrastructure as well as unplanned shrimp culture.

conclusionThus from the above study we can understand the effect of the salinity and how worse it can be for all. It should be taken seriously and the government has taken it seriously in many extend and done many projects for the betterment. The completion of the projects in the slower side and there are failures in some of the projects too. Still the government is doing a lot and some of its projects are successful in reducing the Salinity ingress.

Referencehttp://srdi.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/srdi.portal.gov.bd/publications/bc598e7a_df21_49ee_882e_0302c974015f/Soil%20salinity%20report-Nov%202010.pdf

http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.s.plant.201401.02.html#Sec3.3.3

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/salinity/allaboutsalinity.pdf

http://www.qmdc.org.au/publications/download/690/website-pdfs/land-soils/salinity-risk-assessment-for-the-queensland-murray-darling-region.pdf

http://www.pakbs.org/pjbot/PDFs/38(5)/PJB38(5)1359.pdf

Thank you