Suchergebnisse

Access to water depends on the availability of water but climate change impact such as sea level rise, increase frequency and intensity of cyclone, floods, and erratic rainfall reduces the availability of water by either polluting water sources or damaging water supply and management infrastructure. Women are the worst victims of climate change regarding water access as they are primarily responsible for managing water for the household. This study focuses on how climate change is responsible for reducing water access and subsequently bear on women in addressing the water crisis problem. The study found that women face challenges in access to water that affect them in terms of less time, physical and mental health problems, sexual assault/harassment, violence in the household, reduce their income, children's education, early marriage, divorce, and make more difficult to perform their responsibility. Initiatives should be taken to enhance water access for women on a priority basis.

Global environmental change affects the intensity and frequency of rainfall that increases the necessity for sustainable management of rainwater. It is more important for rain intensive country like Bangladesh otherwise it creates further problems like water logging, flood, soil erosion, and water borne diseases. Based on the survey of 80 rainwater harvesters in the Coastal Bangladesh in 2017, this paper evaluates whether rainwater harvesting is sustainable approach to govern rainwater or not by using social and ecological performance measures of Social Ecological System (SES) of Elinor Ostrom. This study found that rainwater harvesting does not affect environment, it is an acceptable approach in family and society, help to develop biodiversity condition, create resilience to climate change impact, improve equitable access to water, efficient use of rainwater, improve women performance regarding water supply to the family, contribute in achieving sustainable development goal, and do not overharvest of rainwater that could create environmental problem. Beyond these measures, it needs rainwater harvesting controlling mechanism like formal operation rule or policy to avoid overharvesting and ensure more sustainability in governing rainwater.Keywords: Accountability; Biodiversity; Efficiency; Resilience; Equity; Global environmental change; Rainwater harvesting; Sustainable approach; Sustainable development goals; Sustainable management of rainwater

Bangladesh is the lower country of three important international rivers1, which, along with rainfall and groundwater, are the main sources of freshwater of the people on the coast. However, the effects of climate change, such as salinity, arsenic, drought, and cyclone, have generated a severe water crisis. Moreover, the ineffective management and governance, rather than solving, aggravated it. Based on my fieldwork experience in 2016-17, I aim to investigate the role of each of these sources, as well as the socio-economic problems arising from the failure of the government and other stakeholders involved in water management, in Mongla, Bangladesh, to solve it. The water crisis produces social threats like unemployment, an increase of working hours for women, the lack of marriage, migration, reduced income, high medical costs and drop out of school.