Impact of salinity on coastal people’s livelihood and adaptation mechanism : A sociological study on Shyamnagar upazila

Abstract

Livelihood basically means of supporting one’s existence. Most of the people’s livelihoods are based on agriculture in south west area of Bangladesh. Salinity is one of the major concerns of this area. The study focused on impact of salinity and irrigation water insecurity, measure and mitigation strategy that taken by the respondents. Here, most of the people face salinity and irrigation water insecurity. Nearly all of the respondents said that they can cultivate only one crop by rain water. Few respondents also cultivate second crop by pond water. Ground water is salinity affected so They unable to use ground water for irrigation. Drinking water scarcity also hampered the people’s livelihood. As ground water is salinity affected so they take pond water by filtering. They reserve rain water in water tank and use; few respondents also said that they bought water from market. The study finds out the respondent’s assets-based vulnerability. All respondents have no equal capacity and acceptability on capital such as, financial, natural, social and human capital.