Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink

Qualitatively unraveling the nuances of non-economic loss and damage in Bangladesh

Bibliographic Data

ID7163201
AuthorsMohammad Budrudzaman (0000-0001-6854-5320, SAJIDA Foundation, corresponding author), Kate Bärnighausen (0000-0002-4466-8921, University Hospital Heidelberg), Samiya Selim (University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh), Samiya A Selim (0000-0002-3916-215X, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh), Haseeb Md Irfanullah (0000-0002-5532-8922, University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh)
Year2025
Volume30
Issue12
Pages1530-1549
Publication date2025-12-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLocal Environment (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1354-9839 • E-ISSN: 1469-6711
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13549839.2025.2496158
OpenAlexW4409816796
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited59

The research qualitatively explores water salinity's pathways to non-economic losses, their interconnections and contribution to economic losses. We conducted six focus group discussions with 60 participants from 5 coastal villages in Satkhira, Bangladesh. We organise our findings around three types of direct and five types of indirect losses. Of these eight losses, five are interconnected through cascading impacts and five contribute to economic losses. The direct losses include loss of water quality and its symbolic meaning, loss of physical health and loss of religious culture. Indirect losses include mental health challenges (e.g. arising from physical health issues), social connection and values (e.g. decreased cooperation due to loss of water provision, and problems in intercommunity marriages), education (due to physical health issues), territorial value and mobility (as a way of living degrades due to a combination of other losses) and local knowledge (with loss of traditional fish farming). We highlight losses of social connection and values, water quality, health and mobility exacerbate economic losses. We conclude complex circumstances force individuals to compromise health, social relations and personal hygiene, leading to value trade-offs. The losses pose transgenerational challenges including the loss of cultural practices that may diminish community identity, weaken social cohesion and reduce adaptive capacity in the future. We advocate for community-centric interventions such as restoring degraded water sources and establishing new ones. For sustainability, active community participation in planning, monitoring and management should be supported by national and international stakeholders. Integrating loss and damage considerations into policies is imperative

Development economics · Economics · Geography · Natural resource economics · Water damage · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Engineering · Environmental Science · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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