ASSESSMENT OF THE NATURAL DISASTER IMPACTS ON SOUTH-WEST COASTAL REGION OF BANGLADESH

Bangladesh is already experiencing the impacts of climate change through irregular rainfall pattern, floods, flash flood, cyclone, saline intrusion, drought, sea level rise, tidal surge and water logging. Poor communities in the coastal areas of Bangladesh are the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events with environmental degradation and face multiple challenges in the sanitation, health, hygiene and water supply sectors.  The main objective of these studies was to examine the existing water supply, household sanitation, hygiene practices and health problems in a rural coastal community of Bangladesh. This research relied on the intensive field investigation where 150 households were selected randomly for data collection from three different villages (Pratapnagar union of Assasuniupazilla under Satkhira district) through questionnaire survey. Sanitary inspection forms were used to know the existing water supply status. Most of the household used deep tube well as their present drinking water sources (kurikhahonia 90%, Suvardarkati 94% and Ruhirbill 96%) and more than half household used unimproved toilet (kurikhahonia 62 %, Suvardarkati 53 % and Ruhirbill 60 %). According to drinking water sanitary inspection result present drinking water source has higher contamination risk (kurikhahonia 33 %, Suvardarkati 66 % and Ruhirbill 50 %). At present diarrhea and dysentery disease rate is low, but it will be increased in high rate during disaster, when water supply and sanitation condition become severely disrupted. Due to the lower health awareness most of the household used only water (kurikhahonia 40 %, Suvardarkati 50 % and Ruhirbill 42 %) for their hand washing practices. During disaster their suffering level were increased due to the disruption of various facilities. These findings will assist individuals and government agencies in making informed decisions in the case of managing water supply, sanitation and health related facilities in the coastal region of Bangladesh.