Rights-based civil-society representatives on Friday demanded urgent action to safeguard women and girls who are at risk in terms of health and livelihood owing to the impact of climate change.
They made the demand at a virtual news conference on the eve of the International Rural Women's Day to be celebrated on October 15.
International Rural Women's Day Celebration National Committee chairperson Shamima Akhter chaired the event.
Tamanna Rahman, member of the committee, delivered the keynote speech at the press conference.
Speakers said that health, livelihood of the people of the coastal areas, lowlands, hills and mountains and environment of those areas have been affected the most due to the adverse effects of climate change.
Its impact on food, nutrition, livelihood as well as the health of women and girls is severe, they added.
The speakers also said that one of the most harmful effects of climate change can be identified as people of lowlands, coastal and other affected regions are forced to use excessive saline water in daily life.
In her keynote address, Tamanna Rahman said, climate change is harming the life, livelihood, agriculture and health of the people of coastal, haor, char, or hilly areas, and women and girls are usually the first victims of any disaster.
According to available research, the amount of salt entering women's bodies with drinking water is causing more miscarriages in coastal areas than in other parts of the country.
Due to the lack of financial ability to get long-term treatment, most marginal women consider a hysterectomy as a permanent solution, and girls are forced to wash their menstrual clothes with salt water, she said, adding the poor hygiene situation is causing various diseases in their uterus.
On the other hand, women living in hilly or mountainous areas suffer from malnutrition, and on top of that many of them fall ill while collecting water along the mountain paths, she said, cautioning the risk of child marriage is increasing in climate-affected areas. "It is important to adopt and implement special plans for the people of those areas. In particular, they need to ensure their health, nutrition, livelihood, and emergency healthcare."
Masuda Farooq Rata member of the committee said, the children of the affected families are being forced to join work to earn money.
"Excessive use of saline water causes various uterine diseases, the disruption of menstrual health and hygiene in girls, and skin diseases. The lack of fresh water in mountain ranges due to deforestation also creates such hazards for women and girls," the rights activists said.
They called for immediate steps to establish water purification plants at government's expenses in saline-prone and the affected areas, to provide specialised services to women and girls at community clinics, and to strengthen alternative employment creation.
