The pregnancy rate among women in Koyra in Khulna and Shyamnagar in Satkhira is much lower, while the Southern coastal region of the country has been witnessing negative population growth due to the adverse impact of climate change, said Professor Ainun Nishat, water resource and climate change specialist.

“Salinity is increasing in coastal areas while hypertension is on the rise among both males and females. Climate change is successively building at the adverse impacts. Female reproductive rate is under threat,” he said at a discussion on “Integrated Community Development for Better Health Outcomes: Perspectives from Bangladesh” organized by URC, an international organization based in the US at the Sheraton Dhaka Banani on Tuesday.

He said that in Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat and Barguna,  specially the southern thana’s population growth is negative, people are migrating. Bangladesh has suffered serious drought for the last two or three years, and crops are not harvesting in time.

“In Bangladesh, on the curative side, we have improved. We have lots of hospitals, lots of clinics, and some good doctors there. We need to pay attention to the curative side and public health activities as well,” said Ainun Nishat, also professor emeritus of Brac University.

The event highlighted promising interventions and good practices in health service delivery at the community level. Bangladesh has been a leader in public health research and implementation on a large scale for low-cost technologies provided at the community level

Conference moderator, Maureen Shauket, URC Chief Operating Officer, said: “New thinking and learning from the experiences of others is key to improving the quality of care and health outcomes in the communities where we work.”