How Does Salinity Affect Livelihood?

Impact of salinity intrusion on livelihood of coastal people

Whatever happens due to salinity, it subsequently affects various other sectors. All these are important because these affect the lives and livelihoods of the coastal people. Therefore, this section explores how salinity impacts on coastal people livelihood in through drinking water, soils, agriculture, fisheries, ecosystems, and ultimately livelihoods of communities and households.

Agriculture

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood in the coastal region. Salinity intrusion due to sea level rise decrease agricultural production by unavailability of fresh water and soil degradation which in turn reduces rice production. A study by BARC (2003) estimated that land degradation due to salinity itself causes a net loss of 4.42 million ton of wheat per year, which is equivalent to US$587 million. The loss of rice production in a village of Satkhira district and found that rice production in

The loss of Sundarban means great loss of heritage, biodiversity, fish resources, life and livelihood. Furthermore, it is claimed by that increased saltwater intrusion is considered as one of the main causes of death of the Sundari trees. The adverse effects of increased salinity on the ecosystem of the Sundarbans can be seen by the dying top of Sundari trees, retrogression of forest types, slowing of forest growth, and reduced productivity of forest sites. Moreover, The increase of salinity in the adjacent river channels hampers the growth of the forest species. Reduction of freshwater, along with soil quality depletion slow down the plant growth and reduce productivity that have adverse effects on biodiversity and the wildlife. These have adverse impacts on people livelihoods because coastal people depends on this forest for collecting wood food, honey