Scarcity to solution: perceived reasons for safe drinking water scarcity and local coping responses in a coastal village of Bangladesh

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 542-550
Author(s):  
Md. Ali Imam ◽  
Md. Zahidul Haque ◽  
Samiha Yunus

People are directly and indirectly exposed to changing weather patterns through changes in the quality of water, air, and food changes in ecosystems, agriculture, industry, human settlements and the economy. Hence, this study explored local perceived reasons for safe drinking water scarcity and under such circumstances the coping responses in their region. This is a descriptive study based on qualitative methods. Male and female informants (30 + years of age) were purposively identified and data for the study were collected in three ways, through observation and informal discussion, in-depth interviews (n = 18), and three focus group discussions in a coastal village of Bangladesh. Climate change consequences include damaged trees and increased salinity intrusion, leading to a scarcity of safe drinking water. To cope with such scarcity of water, small scale road side mangrove tree planting was found to protect fresh water from salt water. In addition, cost effective rainwater preservation in the community during the rainy season was taken as mitigation of the scarcity of safe drinking water. Considering the geographical and socio-economic context of any specific region, cost effective and environment friendly local adaptive measures can reduce or mitigate the impact of climate change on water resources.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7905
Author(s):  
Moh. Shadiqur Rahman ◽  
Hery Toiba ◽  
Wen-Chi Huang

The impacts of climate change on marine capture fisheries have been observed in several studies. It is likely to have a substantial effect on fishers’ income and food security. This study aims to estimate the impact of adaptation strategies on fishers’ income and their household’s food security. Data were collected from small-scale fishers’ households, which own a fishing boat smaller or equal to five gross tonnages (GT). The study sites were the two coastal regions of Malang and Probolinggo in East Java, Indonesia, due to the meager socioeconomic resources caused by climate change. A probit regression model was used to determine the factors influencing the fishers’ adaptation. Propensity score matching (PSM) was applied to evaluate the impact of the adaptation strategies on income and food security. Food security was measured by food consumption score (FCS). The findings indicated that participation in the fishers’ group affected adaptation strategies significantly, and so did the access to credit and climate information. Also, PSM showed that the adaptation strategies had a positive and significant impact on fishers’ income and food security. Those who applied the adaptation strategies had a higher income and FCS than those who did not. This finding implies that the fishery sector’s adaptation strategies can have significant expansion outcome and reduce exposure to risks posed by climate change. Therefore, the arrangement of more climate change adaptation strategies should be promoted by the government for small-scale fishers in Indonesia.


Membranes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 40
Author(s):  
Latifah Abdul Ghani ◽  
Nora’aini Ali ◽  
Ilyanni Syazira Nazaran ◽  
Marlia M. Hanafiah

Seawater desalination is an alternative technology to provide safe drinking water and to solve water issues in an area having low water quality and limited drinking water supply. Currently, reverse osmosis (RO) is commonly used in the desalination technology and experiencing significant growth. The aim of this study was to analyze the environmental impacts of the seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant installed in Kampung Pantai Senok, Kelantan, as this plant was the first installed in Malaysia. The software SimaPro 8.5 together with the ReCiPe 2016 database were used as tools to evaluate the life cycle assessment (LCA) of the SWRO plant. The results showed that the impact of global warming (3.90 kg CO2 eq/year) was the highest, followed by terrestrial ecotoxicity (1.62 kg 1,4-DCB/year) and fossil resource scarcity (1.29 kg oil eq/year). The impact of global warming was caused by the natural gas used to generate the electricity, mainly during the RO process. Reducing the environmental impact can be effectively achieved by decreasing the electricity usage for the seawater desalination process. As a suggestion, electricity generation can be overcome by using a high-flux membrane with other suitable renewable energy for the plant such as solar and wind energy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-169
Author(s):  
Eko Sumartono ◽  
Gita Mulyasari ◽  
Ketut Sukiyono

Bengkulu is said to be the center of the world's climate because of the influence of water conditions and the topography of the area where the rain cloud formation starts. The waters in Bengkulu Province become a meeting place for four ocean currents which eventually become an area where the evaporation process of forming rain clouds becomes the rainy or dry season and affects the world climate. Method to analyze descriptively, shows oldeman Classification and satellite rainfall estimation data is added. In relation to the Analysis of Potential Food Availability for the Coastal Areas of Bengkulu Province uses a quantifiable descriptive analysis method based. The results show that most are included in the Oldeman A1 climate zone, which means it is suitable for continuous rice but less production due to generally low radiation intensity throughout the year. In an effort to reduce or eliminate the impact of climate change on food crop production, it is necessary to suggest crop diversification, crop rotation, and the application of production enhancement technologies. Strategies in building food availability as a result of climate change are: First, develop food supplies originating from regional production and food reserves on a provincial scale. Second, Empowering small-scale food businesses which are the dominant characteristics of the agricultural economy, especially lowland rice and horticultural crops. Third, Increase technology dissemination and increase the capacity of farmers in adopting appropriate technology to increase crop productivity and business efficiency. Four, Promote the reduction of food loss through the use of food handling, processing and distribution technologies. 


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katalin Demeter ◽  
Julia Derx ◽  
Jürgen Komma ◽  
Juraj Parajka ◽  
Jack Schijven ◽  
...  

<p><strong>Background</strong>: Rivers are important sources for drinking water supply, however, they are often impacted by wastewater discharges from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) and combined sewer overflows (CSO). Reduction of the faecal pollution burden is possible through enhanced wastewater treatment or prevention of CSOs. Few methodological efforts have been made so far to investigate how these measures would affect the long-term treatment requirements for microbiologically safe drinking water supply under future changes.</p><p><strong>Objectives</strong>: This study aimed to apply a new integrative approach to decipher the interplay between the effects of future changes and wastewater management measures on the required treatment of river water to produce safe drinking water. We investigated scenarios of climate change and population growth, in combination with different wastewater management scenarios (i.e., no upgrades and upgrades at WWTPs, CSOs, and both). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate this interplay. We focussed on the viral index pathogens norovirus and enterovirus and made a cross-comparison with a bacterial and a protozoan reference pathogen (Campylobacter and Cryptosporidium).</p><p><strong>Methods</strong>: We significantly extended QMRAcatch (v1.0 Python), a probabilistic-deterministic model that combines virus fate and transport modelling in the river with quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). To investigate the impact of climatic changes, we used a conceptual semi-distributed hydrological model and regional climate model outputs to simulate river discharges for the period 2035 – 2049. We assumed that population growth leads to a corresponding increase in WWTP discharges. QMRAcatch was successfully calibrated and validated based on a four-year dataset of a human-associated genetic MST marker and enterovirus. The study site was the Danube in Vienna, Austria.</p><p><strong>Results</strong>: In the reference scenario, approx. 98% of the enterovirus and norovirus loads at the study site (median: 10<sup>10</sup> and 10<sup>13</sup> N/d) originated from WWTP effluent, while the remainder was via CSO events. The required log reduction value (LRV) to produce safe drinking water was 6.3 and 8.4 log<sub>10</sub> for enterovirus and norovirus. Future changes in population size, river flows and CSO events did not affect these treatment requirements, and neither did the prevention of CSOs. In contrast, in the scenario of enhanced wastewater treatment, which showed lower LRVs by 2.0 and 1.3 log<sub>10</sub>, climate-change-driven increases in CSO events had a considerable impact on the treatment requirements, as they affected the main pollution source. Preventing CSOs and installing enhanced treatment at the WWTPs together had the most significant positive effect with a reduction of LRVs by 3.9 and 3.8 log<sub>10</sub> compared to the reference scenario.</p><p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: The integrative modelling approach was successfully realised. The simultaneous consideration of source apportionment and concentrations of the reference pathogens were found crucial to understand the interplay among the effects of climate change, population growth and pollution control measures. The approach was demonstrated for a study site representing a large river impacted by WWTP and CSO discharges, but is applicable at other sites to support long term water safety planning.</p>


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 325 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hussam Hussein ◽  
Alberto Natta ◽  
Abed Al Kareem Yehya ◽  
Baha Hamadna

Since the Syrian crisis and the so-called “Arab Spring”, new discourses have been created, sparking the discursive water governance debates around water scarcity and hydropolitics. In Lebanon and Jordan—where most water resources are transboundary, and where most Syrian refugees have flown in—new discourses of climate change and especially of Syrian refugees as exacerbating water scarcity are emerging, shaping water governance debates. The aim of this paper is to engage in comparative discourse analysis about narratives of water crises and refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. This study is novel because of the focus on the new discourse of refugees in relation to water governance debates in both Lebanon and Jordan. This paper finds that in both countries the new discourses of refugees do not replace previous and existing discourses of water crisis and scarcity, but rather they build on and reinforce them. This paper finds that the impact these discourses had on the governance debates is that in Lebanon the resources mobilized focused on humanitarian interventions, while Jordan focused on development projects to strengthen the resilience of its water infrastructure and its overall water governance system.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2940
Author(s):  
Offir Inbar ◽  
Igal Gozlan ◽  
Stanislav Ratner ◽  
Yaron Aviv ◽  
Roman Sirota ◽  
...  

Alternative new technologies are urgently needed to overcome the rapidly increasing global water scarcity. Atmospheric dew water is a potential source of potable water, as the earth’s atmosphere contains billions of tons of fresh water (98% in a vapor state). The atmospheric water generator (AWG) converts water vapor into liquid water and is a promising solution for water scarcity. We provide the first comprehensive analysis of the chemical profiles of water produced for several months by an AWG in the city of Tel Aviv, Israel. Metals, inorganic ions, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and semi-VOCs were analyzed in the dew water. The main elements found were ammonium, calcium, sulfate, and nitrate. Location of the sampling site in an urban residential area, between major traffic routes, likely affected the chemical composition of the produced dew water. Nevertheless, the produced water nearly always (day and night in different seasons) met the WHO and Israeli drinking water standards. Thus, even in a highly developed urban environment, the AWG offers an excellent alternative source of safe drinking water throughout the year.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document