A Review on Adaptation Practices of Affected People with Riverine Floods in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a riverine country. Every year flood devastated Bangladesh. Therefore, response and adaptation strategies of flood affected people are important for planning future mitigation action. Present study focuses to review on adaptation practices of affected people with riverine floods in Bangladesh to reduce vulnerability of awaited flood. Consequently, they adopt several adaptation techniques by their life long experience. The major adaptation practiced of the people are raise homesteads using ‘dig-elevate-dwell’ principle of settlement, cultivate flood tolerant paddy (e.g. bona aman), cultivate vegetables in floating bed, tube well have been placed on an elevated base or raised with an additional pipe, and cementing the base of tube well. People also use their indigenous knowledge to cure diseases during flood. Hence, holy basil, and basak (Adhatoda Vasica) are used to treat colds and fevers. On the contrary, durba grass, gando badal (Gaultheria Fragrantissima), garden mint, and Indian pennywort are used for diarrhea and dysentery. Basically, people’s indigenous adaptation techniques have helped them to reduce damages of property and lives as well. Therefore, various types of adaptation should incorporate at the local level plan and implement by the concerned authority.

Assessment of Tube Well Pumping Test Performance on Different Geological Formation

Water supply-demand is increasing in line with the increment in population. Natural water resources are declining due to reduction of water catchment areas, river pollution and drought. This causes the raw water quantity and quality to decrease and increase water treatment costs. Groundwater usage may be able to solve this problem due to its less polluted nature which requires less treatment. The groundwater is preserved in aquifer within the geological formations, i.e., in the alluvium and fractured-rock. However, the groundwater yield of each formation is unknown unless tube well is constructed and pumping test are performed. This study aim to evaluate the tube well performance via pumping test on two different geological formations. This research focuses on the effect of transmissivity, hydraulic conductivity, and efficiency of the aquifer, which are step-drawdown test, constant-rate test and recovery test in tube well in geological formation of alluvium and fractured rock. Three well-pumping tests at each formation were conducted at IBS Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK), Kelantan, Sekolah Kebangsaan Chantum, Kelantan, Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Agama Tok Bachok, Kelantan, FRU Wakaf Tapai, Terengganu, Kampung Dada Kering, Kuala Lipis, Pahang, and Kampung Seri Gunung Pulai, Johor, respectively. The aquifer efficiency obtained from the relationship between transmissivity and hydraulic conductivity. The suggested value of 75% efficiency is selected to present the well’s efficiency. The wells efficiency indicate that the alluvium formation has roughly uniform output between 9.39m3/h, 11.23m3/h and 23.38m3/h. Meanwhile in the fractured rock formation the efficiency was highly varied between sites, the highest is 32.33m3/h and the other two sites obtained has low output of 3.44 m3/h and 1.00m3/h respectively. The alluvium aquifer showed uniform water production compared to fractured hard rock aquifer. Meanwhile the water quantity in the fractured hard rock formation is unpredicted, which subjected to the fractured rock characteristic.

Groundwater Chemistry at Deep Aquifer in Koyra: Khulna, Bangladesh

Koyra (Khulna District) is the coastal Upazila of Bangladesh and is very susceptible to salinity intrusion. The surface and shallow tube well water in the Upazila is naturally saline. The quality of subterranean tube well water in the deliberate area is hardly presented for different Unions of Koyra. Dakshin Bedkashi Union of Koyra is very saline prone. Therefore, the groundwater chemistry of Dakshin Bedkashi Union was determined to legalize if the groundwater is fit for drinking and irrigation or not. Spatially dispersed 30 water samples were collected from the deep aquifer (550 to 700 feet depth) in December, 2016 and analyzed for physico-chemical properties. The outcomes were compared with WHO, USEPA and BBS drinking water quality standard and with FAO standard for irrigation purpose. The pH varied from 6.73 to 8.33, indicating that the water samples were within the WHO drinking water quality standard. The TDS showed a long range variation (230.5 to 2052.0 ppm) with an average of 841.23 ppm, of which 33% of water sources exceeded BBS standard value. The mean value of salinity was 0.65 (±0.43) ppt and EC was 1,400.9 (±904.18) µS cm-1. The loads of key ions were ranked as Na+> Ca2+> Mg2+> K+ and HCO3-> Cl-> SO42-> NO3-> PO4-. The Piper diagram demonstrated that the existing hydro-chemical facies of groundwater were Na+-Cl--HCO3- and Na+-Ca2+-HCO3- type. The Gibbs diagram illustrated that the chemical arrangement of groundwater is mainly misrepresented by rock weathering. Silicate weathering was the profuse process along study area. The Wilcox diagram proved that the greater water sources were allowable to suspicious for irrigation. The core component analysis ensured that rock suspension and sea water intrusion was the primary source of ions in groundwater. The controlling factors of groundwater chemistry were typically related to geologic factors, while the anthropogenic factors have not any momentous effects.

Diarrhea treatment center (DTC) based diarrheal disease surveillance in settlements in the wake of the mass influx of forcibly displaced Myanmar national (FDMN) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 2018

Background In August 2017, after a large influx of forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals (FDMN) in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh diarrhea treatment centers (DTCs) were deployed. This study aims to report the clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory characteristics of the hospitalized patients. Methods The study followed cross-sectional design. In total 1792 individuals were studied. Other than data, a single, stool specimen was subjected to one step rapid visual diagnostic test for Vibrio cholerae. The provisionally diagnosed specimens of cholera cases were inoculated into Cary-Blair Transport Medium; then sent to the laboratory of icddr,b in Dhaka to isolate the colony as well as perform antibiotic susceptibility tests. Data were analyzed by STATA and analyses included descriptive as well as analytic methods. Results Of the total 1792 admissions in 5 DTCs, 729 (41%) were from FDMN settlements; children <5 years contributed the most (n = 981; 55%). Forty percent (n = 716) were aged 15 years and above, and females were predominant (n = 453; 63%). Twenty-eight percent (n = 502) sought treatment within 24h of the onset of diarrhea. FDMN admissions within 24h were low compared to host hospitalization (n = 172, 24% vs. n = 330, 31%; p<0.001). Seventy-two percent (n = 1295) had watery diarrhea; more common among host population than FDMN (n = 802; 75% vs. n = 493; 68%; p<0.001). Forty-four percent admissions (n = 796) had some or severe dehydration, the later was common in FDMN (n = 46; 6% vs. n = 36; 3%, p = 0.005). FDMN often used public taps (n = 263; 36%), deep tube-well (n = 243; 33%), and shallow tube well (n = 188; 26%) as the source of drinking water. Nearly 96% (n = 698) of the admitted FDMN used pit latrines as opposed to 79% (n = 842) from the host community (p<0.001). FDMN children were often malnourished. None of the FDMN reported cholera. Conclusion No diarrhea outbreak was detected, but preparedness for surges and response readiness are warranted in this emergency and crisis setting.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND MEDICINAL IMPORTANCE OF EUCALYPTUS TREES: A CRITICAL REVIEW

Pollution is a great issue of the environment that is gaining global attention currently because industrial development has disturbed the ecosystem of the world and depleting the ozone. It has resulted in global warming and increased the temperature, which has changed the climate at different levels globally. According to a world report, about 25% of forest land is required for ecosystem favourability. There are so many trees which are grown in the world. Among these trees, Eucalyptus is very popular and was first grown in Australia. This plant has both economic and health benefits. Pharmacologists converted this plant into medicine for different health disease control in the world. Essential Oil squeezed from the leaf and bark of the tree and leaves also possess great benefits. The well-known diseases are blood pressure, diabetes, Arthritis, plague, Cough etc., while it is also used for mosquitoes, termites, and white ants control. The plant also has its disadvantage; it decreases the water table and disturbs the tube well system. Those plants need much water, so they compete with other plants in the area and affect the size of the plant. The major objective was to review the socio-economic and medicinal value of the eucalyptus tree. Total 19 articles were downloaded from the net and reviewed in depth. The result indicates that the Eucalyptus tree has many socio-economic and medicinal values

Quality Assessment of Bottled and Unbottled Drinking Water in Bangladesh

The demand for bottled drinking water in Bangladesh is becoming popular due to the lack of safe drinking water sources. The present study was carried out to assess the water quality and public health impacts of local brands of bottled drinking water and tube-well water, compared to the imported ones. Several state-of-the-art techniques were employed to determine the contents of pH, EC, salinity, chloride, nitrates, nitrites, fluoride, sulfates, phosphates, bicarbonate, turbidity, color, total hardness, and total dissolved solids in the studied water samples. The measured data show that the level of dissolved minerals in the local branded bottled water is very low (with an exception for sample codes D1 and D8), while imported brands, Zamzam water, and tube-well water contain satisfactory level of minerals and fulfill Dietary Reference Intake requirements. Total coliform, fecal coliform, and E. coli were found to be absent in local brands of bottled water and tube-well water. On the other hand, concentrations of some radionuclides 40K, 238U, 226Ra, 210Pb, 210Po, 222Rn, 137Cs, and 232Th in local bottled water and tube-well water were found to be less than the permissible level given by WHO (2011). The results reveal that local bottled drinking water manufacturing companies may not be following standard guidelines and quality control steps properly. Thus, improvement in their standard operating process is urgently needed to ensure strict compliance with guidelines set by Bangladesh standards and testing institutions.

Socio-economic status of fisher communities in Dengar beel under Melandah Upazila, Jamalpur, Bangladesh

The current study was conducted to evaluate the socio-economic profile of fisher communities in Dengar beel under Melandah Upazila of Jamalpur district, Bangladesh. A total of 45 fishers were surveyed from November 2020 to April 2021. It was found that the family size of 53% of fishers was medium, consisting of 5-6 members. Most of the fisher communities belonged to the age group above 45 years old, represented by 100% Muslim. About 73% of fishers were less educated, 13% primary level, 7% secondary level, and 7% Secondary School Certificate passed and above, respectively. Most of the fishers (60%) have katcha houses with tin roofing, 7% have katcha house with straw roofs, 13% have semi- pucca houses and 20% have pucca houses. Around 93% of fishers used their own tube-well while only 7% used neighbours’ tube-well. All of the fisher household were connected with electricity supply. About 27% of fisher communities used katcha toilets, 46% used semi pucca toilets and 27% used pucca toilets. About 47% of fisher communities were dependent on village doctors, 33% got health service from Upazila health complex, 20% from MBBS doctors, and others. About 46% of fishers were engaged in fishing as their primary occupation while 27% in agriculture with fishing, 20% in daily labour with fishing and 7% in livestock rearing. About 33% of the fishers had low income, 40% had medium income and 27% had high income. The present study revealed that the fishers of Dengar Beel were mostly less educated, less privilege to attain modern technology-oriented training experience, less income and less awareness about sanitation and health facilities. So, provide soft loans to fishers, and strengthening people awareness has been might be helpful to improve the socio-economic status of fisher communities in Dengar Beel. Asian J. Med. Biol. Res. 2021, 7 (2), 164-173