The silent threat: Unveiling climate change's water and health challenges in Bangladesh

Abstract

ABSTRACT Bangladesh faces a growing number of issues, such as limited sources of potable water and health hazards that are either directly or indirectly linked to climate change. In total, 16 publications from 2007 to 2024 were manually screened for inclusion in this systematic review. The articles were divided into three categories: climate and water, climate and health, and climate, water, and health. Due to the climate change, 20 million individuals in Bangladesh have been suffering from water- and health-related illness. The results showed that among Bangladeshi vulnerable groups, cholera, infant diarrhea, pneumonia, dengue, malaria, mental illness, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, and an increase in communicable diseases like water-, vector-, and food-borne infections, along with malnutrition, are common. Further findings of the study include health risks, water-related risks, and difficulties in determining the consequences of climate change. This review study focuses on Bangladesh, a developing country, and the correlation between climate change and the dangers of water and health-related diseases. The findings of this study have substantial implications for risk assessment, water quality, climate change, and public health, especially in poor nations, as well as for policymakers and academicians in these fields.