Drinking Water Salinity and Infant Mortality in Coastal Bangladesh

Bangladesh, with two-thirds of its land
area less than five meters above sea level, is one of the
most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. Low-lying
coastal districts along the Bay of Bengal are particularly
vulnerable to sea level rise, tidal flooding, storm surges,
and climate-induced increases in soil and water salinity.
This paper investigates the impact of drinking water
salinity on infant mortality in coastal Bangladesh. It
focuses on the salinity of drinking water consumed during
pregnancy, which extensive medical research has linked to
maternal hypertension, preeclampsia, and post-partum
morbidity and mortality. The study combines
spatially-formatted salinity measures for 2001-09 provided
by Bangladesh with individual and household survey
information from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health
Surveys for 2004 and 2007. It uses probit and logit analyses
to estimate mortality probability for infants less than two
months old. Controlling for many other determinants of
infant mortality, the analysis finds high significance for
salinity exposure during the last month of pregnancy and no
significance for exposure during the preceding months. The
estimated impact of salinity on infant mortality is
comparable in magnitude to the estimated effects of
traditionally-cited variables such as maternal age and
education, gender of the household head, household wealth,
toilet facilities, drinking water sources, and cooking fuels.