Climate Change and Health Impacts in Bangladesh

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that global climate change will have adverse effects on human health, mainly among the poorest population of the developing countries. Bangladesh may experience some of the more severe impacts because of its characteristic climatic and geographical conditions, coupled with high population density and poor health infrastructure. Many of the climatic events would make the climate change-induced health impacts worse as a result of newer environmental threats, such as changes in microclimate, erratic climatic behavior, and salinity intrusion in soil and water. This paper identifies some of the possible direct and indirect impacts of climate change on health condition of Bangladesh. In identifying such impacts, secondary sources of information have been widely reviewed. It has been seen that even though climate change-induced health impacts have been gaining importance in Bangladesh, there is still a lack of research and capacity in this field and its ever-increasing level of vulnerability of the people. Linkage between climate change and the increased incidences of disease, rate of mortality, and availability of safe water has not yet received the proper focus it requires.