Volume 11, Number 02, 2016

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Evaluation of the aquifer system and groundwater quality of the north-western districts of Bangladesh for development potential
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Islam, Kamrul; Rahman, M. Saidur; Ali, M. Hazrat; Hossain, A.F.M. Afzal; Alam, M. Jahangir; Zahid, Anwar
Considering the comparatively low agricultural production in the area, assessment of the potential of increased agricultural production in Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Joypurhat districta was undertaken, through optimum utilization of available water resources. Physiographically, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur and Panchagarh areas are mostly under the Old Himalayan Piedmont Plain and Joypurhat and some areas of Dinajpur are under the Tista floodplain and Barind Tract. To explore the aquifer system in the area, a total of 15 new test drillings were cnoducted down to the maximum depth of 300 m and 50 observation wells were selected for observing the groundwater level trend. Groundwater samples were collected from 20 locations for analysis and interpretation of important physicochemical parameters. The important constitoenta that influence the water quality for inigation were calculated using standard equations. From the spatial distribution of the borelogs from northwest to southeast reveals that down to the investigated depth of 300m the aquifer system is hydraulically connected regionally though one or more aquitards are encountered at local level. The maximum depth to groundwater table below ground surface is between 4.0 to 12.0 m doring dry month of April. The groundwater table lowers beyund the suction limit (7.5 m) of no. 6 hand tube wells (HTW) in some parts of the study area. In geneml, groundwater quality of the areas is suitable both for domestic and agricultural uses except at a few localities where iron concentration exceeded the allowable limit. The most of the study area has potentiality for groundwater development having higher rainfall and recharge potential. However, when usable recharge is considered at base condition, shortage of groundwater is observed in few areas and no further installation of irrigation TWs is recommended in those areas.
Determining sources of groundwater salinity in the multi-layered aquifer system of the bengal delta, Bangladesh
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Zahid, Anwar; Rahman, Aminur; Hassan, M. Rashidul; Ali, M. Hazrat
The study area lies on the coastal belt of the Bengal Delta, southern Bangladesh. This study bas been condocted to deteonine salinity sources in the multi-layered aquifers of the Bengal Delta. Dissolved major ions including chloride (Cr) and brontide (Br) were measured in groundwater of the coastal areas of Bangladesh to assess the source(s) of salinity. Ionic concentrations of 48 groundwater samples were analyzed for this study; samples were collected from observation wells installed at different depths down to 336 m. The major ion trends of the upper (<200 m deep) Sodium (Na')-Chloride (Cr) groundwater type is defined as Na+> Calcium (Ca2l> Magnesium (Mg'"')> Potassium (K"') and Cl> Bi-carbonate (HC03 )> Sulfate (So,'-). The deep groundwater (201-336 m deep) bas ionic trend of Na+>Ca2+>Mg'+>K+ and HC03>Cl>So.'·. The shallow groundwater (<200 m deep) of the south central coast bas Br:Cr ratios between 0.00234 and 0.00354 and correspondiog Cr:Br molar ratios between 635.51 and 959.78, which indicates that seawater from the ocean is the principal source of chloride in the upper aquifers with the mixture of fresh water mainly recharged from monsoon rain. At some locations in the south-central coast, seawater is also the principal source of the salinity in deep groundwater, within the depth ranging from 201 to 336 m. Elevated chloride concentration might be due to the entrapment of relict seawater in the sediment during Holocene transgression.
Assessing willingness to pay for safe drinking water in Tala union of Satkhira district, Bangladesh
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Dey, Nepal C.; Parvez, Mahmood; Saha, Ratnajit; Khan, AS Moniruzzaman; Rahman, Md. Sajidur; Khanam, Roufa; Khan, Md. Reaz Uddin; Barna, Milan K.; Islam, Akramul
The people of the coastal regioo of Bangladesh are facing severe difficulties in accessing safe drinking water mainly during the dry period. Tala upazila of Satkhira district is ooe of the most affected areas because of widespread arsenic contamination in shallow aquifer, salinity in ground and surface water, difficulties in extractiog saline free aquifer due to hard rocks/stooes and excessive iron. There is an acute shortage of safe drinking water in the villages of Tala mainly due to low accessibility and inadequate quality of drinking water. This paper has been extracted from the pilot study cooducted in Tala union in 2015 to identify local people's preference for drinking water sources, their preferred option for buying and willingoess to pay for access to safe drinking water as well as to find out the opportunity of existiog water selling business. Water pricing, as one of the most iroportant element to develop water selling business model, requires the information regarding the willingoess to pay and affordability of the users for access to safe drinking water. This paper focuses on the willingoess of the households of Tala to pay for safe drinking water according to socio-ecooomic class of the households. Data required to determine willingoess of the households to pay was collected from survey, FGD and Kll. All the households in Tala Union, 8613 in total was covered in the household census. The household census dsta revealed that the pipe water supply to households was the most preferred option by the local people for buying drinking water. However, a large percentage of households were willing to buy drinking water either from any specific place or if water is supplied to their house in gallons. On an average 60% of the households were willing to pay for access to safe drinking water. Most of the respondents were ready to spend Tk. 20 per week to buy safe drinking water. The positive respouse for willingoess to pay for safe drinking water was fouod higher amongst the non-poor respondent (71%) as opposed to the poor (58%) and the ultra-poor (48%). So it is pre!rY obvious that socioeconomic status has an effect oo household's willingoess to pay for safe drinking water. Households of different socio-economic class were willing to pay 3% to 6% of their respective monthly income to access safe drinking water. As most of the households are willing to pay for buying drinking water, entrepreneurship development for water selling business can be encouraged to supply safe drinking water with minimum cost; thus eroployment of scme local people as well as ensuring access to safe drinking water can be achieved at the same time. At the same time, the water selling business, which has already started in Tala, should be given more importance and its promotion, proper manageroent, technical support and supervision should be prioritized to ensure its sustainable growth.
Housing for middle-income group of Dhaka: role of public and private sector
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Islam, lshrat; Zahur, Moushumi
Fast pace of urbanization and poor econoroy followed by inequitable distribution of resources bave created severe housing problems in Dhaka city, particularly for low and middle income population. With limited resource and capacity, the government bas contributed very little to address the housing problem, particularly for middle income group. A number of site and service schemes were the major focus of government which mostly beoefitted a privileged group of the society. In response to failure of the public sector, the Formal Private Sector Housing emerged as a doroinant force to cater to the housing demand of the resideoiB of Dhaka. Construction of apartment buildings bas becoroe a viable solution to meet the growing demand for resideotial accommodation in the limited land of Dhaka. Real estate business started in Dhaka in the late seventies and by the 1990s the business bad started to flourish and expand at a fast pace. At the beginning, the target groop of the developers were the upper income group of the society. But recently the private housing companies bave shifled their focus to middle incoroe group who are the largest segment of population (about 50 percent) of Dhaka city. Though real estate developers bave a coromitment to meet the housing demand of middleincome people, the question arises how far the cost matches with the affordability of the middle income group. This research reviewed the government policies and projects for housing the middle incoroe groop. It also explored the affordability of the middle-incoroe group to meet the housing cost developed by the private sector. The research bas stodied the cost of housing and existing modes of payment for housing. Findings have compared with the targets groups' income and affordability. A questionnsire survey bas been conducted on 180 middle-incoroe households located in four different middle-income areas who bave plans to boy an apartment in the near futore. Officials of 20 developer companies (about 10% of total developers who are engaged in construction of aparbncnt buildiogs) were also interviewed to understand their perspective on the middle-incoroe gmup. In conclusion, the gap between the housing market and the aspiration of the middle incoroe bas been portrayed. The study also suggested some measures to address the housing issue of middle income gmup.
Context specific safe water supply technologies for vulnerable climatic and geomorphologic areas of Bangladesh
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Zahid, Anwar; Rashid, S.M.A.; Miah, M.A. Salam; Halder, Joseph; Islam, M.T.; Tazneen, Farhana
The detection of arsenic in shallow groundwater threatens groundwater based water supply in Bangladesh. Seawater encroachment in coastal aquifers is another major problem for the availability of fresh water. On the other hand, surface water source is not suitable in many parts of the country. In addition, vu1nerable climatic conditions and anticipated impact of climate change arc putting more stress on the sustainable development of safe water resources. Therefore, one technology is not suitable for all areas due to different hydro meteorological conditions. The aim of this paper is to determine sustainable context-specific water supply technologies considering the climatic hazard and other vu1nerabilities in 5 different hard to reach (HtR) areas, which are (a) drought prone, (b) flood prone, (c) char (sand bar), (d) coastal and (e) haor (swamp) areas. It is found from the study that more activities and effort is needed to ensure the water supply facilities for all, mainly in the HtR areas. Still expansion and improvement of the water supply services is required to satisfy the basic needs in these areas. Proper maintenance and monitoring of existing appropriate technologies arc also important for sustainable use. Guidelines and user manuals need to be prepared as a tool to standardized procedures for installation and easy maintenance of technologies.
Climate change adaptation policies in Bangladesh: gap analysis through a gender lens
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Sharif, Ibrat; Nasir, Naznin; Khanum, Roufa; Khan, A S Moniruzzaman
Policy reform is a necessary approach to implementing appropriate responses to climate change. Despite the acceptance of the role of gender in determining vulnerabilities related climate change, low reorganization has been given to gender concerns in the climate change policy documents of Bangladesh. In this regard, gender sensitivity of the key national policies about climate change in Bangladesh was assessed The discussion also identified some of the existing gaps in the reviewed policy documents. Identified gaps include generalization of women, lack of operational planning to address the vulnerabilities women, lack of recognizing roles of women as active contributors to adaptation and mitigation strategies. It was found that policy objectives related to climate change aud gender are addressed in a mutually exclusive manner. Finally, this paper provided recommendations to address the gaps and making gender more central to all policy development.
Automation, heat loss reduction and optimum positioning of solar hot water system with storage tank in Bangladesh
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Ferdous, Jannatul; Swjo, Rafiur Rahman; Hasan, Raied; Azad, AKM
Since time immemorial, the necessity for hot water has been indispensable regardless of the advent of modem technology. In the dawn of the 21st century, only the means to heat the water has changed - now we mostly use electricity and gas in place of woods and other natural fuel. With that being said, lots of gas and electricity is being devoted to heat up the liquid for uses in hospitals, industries and households and the dernaod for hot water is ever climbing. Natural resources like fuel and coal are in liruited amouots and will not be able to sustain forever. Conseqoently, renewable energy is starting to gaio popularity in countries like Bangladesh. As a commitment to the development of the energy sector of Bangladesh, Control and Applications Research Centre (CARC) ofBRAC University has developed a Solar Hot Water System (SHWS) that would utilize solar energy to heat water, which could be used for several purposes like sterilization of medical equipment, cleaning of dishes, etc. An automated pilot project haa been implemented on the rooftop of BRAC University and research work haa been conducted for increasing the efficiency of the whole system by increasing the captured insolation and reducing wastage of heat overnight through insulation of the storage tank. With regard to procedural perspectives, this paper contemplates on highlighting the techoology implemented in the system and the improvisations made to elevate the efficiency and present a viable comparison between commercially available hot water systems with the developed automated uninterruptable SHWS.
Seasonal shifting and its impact on crop production: local community perception of Satkhira district
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Nipa, Sharmin Nahar; Mukherjee, Nandan; Khan, Md. Reaz Uddin; Akhter, Taslima; Khanum, Roufa; Khan, A S Moniruzzman; Nishat, Ainun
In Bangladesh, climate change apparently has started to affect the climatic parameters which cause seasonal shifting and the behavior of different seasoos. This kind of pheoomeoon is currently posing a serious threat to the agricultural crop production and food security of the coun1ry. Participatory Rural Appraisal method was applied to investigate the perception of the local commnnity of Satkhira district. The study primarily ideotified the thinking of the local people about the shifting of seasons due to changes in the climatic parameters and its impact on crop production. Moreover, a number of literatures were reviewed to conceptualize the real scenario of climate change. Preseotly, ooly three seasons are perceived by the local community instead of the traditional six seasons. These seasonal fluctuations (starting and ending) and seasonal absences are resulting in high nncertainty in crop production. New agricultural plan along with climate resilient agricultural extension services need to be introduced to overcome such uncertainty.
Antibacterial resistance: a comparative study between clinical and environmental isolates
(© 2016 Published by BRAC University, 2016) Mosharraf, Fahareen Binta; Anindita, Monisha; Kalam, Iftekhar Mohammad Shafiqul; Karim, Mehnaz
This comparative study was carried out to investigate the presence of antibiotic sensitive and resistant bacteria isolated from different environmental samples of Bangladesh with specific clinical strain obtained from !CD DR, B . The environmental isolates were collected from the month April 2015 to September 2015 from different locations ofDbaka city to perceive the propensity of these environmental isolates to develop antibiotic resistance at different time periods of a year. The bacterial isolates were identified on the basis of the standard cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics. Antibiogram was done to identiJY the antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates according to CLSI guidelines. The result of this study showed that all the environmental isolates have become resistant to the tested antibiotics, and some of them have become multiresistant to these therapeutic agents whereas all the clinical isolates showed the opposite result. The study helps to predict the future emergence and to guide the development of strategies towards counteracting this resistance. Therefore periodic and comprehensive survey of antibiotic resistance in the environmental bacteria is required