Assessing Environmental and Health Impact of Drought in the Northwest Bangladesh

Drought, the result of regional climatic variability is one of the dominant threats to environment. This study focuses on the biophysical, environmental and health issues concerning drought occurrence in northwest region of Bangladesh. Using both primary and secondary data, the analysis revealed that, during the drought period, rainfall as the dominant factor of supplying surface water and normalizing the dryness of the nature was almost 46% lower than the previous (normal) years. Similarly, average monthly sunshine hours in the drought year was about 7% higher compared to that of the normal year. On an average, groundwater level declined more than one meter compared to the previous years. Thus, many of the tubewells turned dry or failed to supply the required quantity of water for household and irrigation purposes. A significant number of surface water bodies including ponds,ditches, canals and streams had little volume of low quality water.