Climate change has induced progressive salinisation of low-elevated coastal zones in many parts of the world. Climate change-induced salinisation (CCIS) could thus pose serious public health issues due to its direct link to hypertension, or elevated blood pressure levels. Given the strong link between health and worker productivity, such salinisation could have severe consequences on worker productivity, which is of fundamental importance to growth in low-income countries (John Strauss, 1985). Countries such as Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable due to their geographic proximity to the ocean and low-lying topography. To understand the public health and economic impacts of CCIS, therefore, this project will investigate the impacts of drinking saline water on the productivity of factory workers in the country’s coastal areas.
In terms of methodology, the researchers will adopt a quasi-experimental research design with workers of jute mills that exploits the variation in exposure to drinking water salinity based on within-worker and within-factory comparisons across dry and wet seasons of the year. The key independent variables will be levels of drinking water salinity measured directly at factories and workers’ homes using dip-based salinity testers. The dependent variables of interest include productivity and mediating health variables such as blood pressure and hypertension. Such individual-level health measures will be monitored using digital blood pressure monitoring devices for home use. The researchers will also study the differences in the impact of salinity on these outcomes by gender.
The proposed study has several important policy implications for Bangladesh. First, it will shed light on ways to increase the productivity of workers in the jute industry, which is one of the most important in the country, by assessing the impacts of CCIS, which is already known to affect other Bangladeshi industries (e.g. agriculture). Second, it will investigate the importance of changes in water salinity on health, which is highly policy-relevant given the high prevalence of hypertension in the country. Third, it will provide lessons on the differential impacts of salinity by gender, which is relevant given the rapid rise of the female labour force participation rate over the past decades.
