October 2026 Journal of Environmental Health

FIGURE 1

Occupation of the Head of the Household for Survey Respondents

Agricultural Laborer

Day Laborer

Industrial Laborer

Business Job

Other

Farmer

Van Puller

Fish Trader

Private Job

Govenmnent Job

# of Respondents

Willingness to Pay for Improved Drinking Water Services Studies have reported that ranges of 66%–96% indicated WTP for improved water service (Akeju et al., 2018; Akhtar et al., 2018; Eri- dadi et al., 2021; Tussupova et al., 2015). In our study, >50% of the surveyed households expressed WTP for improved drinking water service. More specifically, 65% of respondents were willing to pay 240 BDT per month for improved drinking water service (Figure 4). To make the finding consistent, Nobi (2021) found that households living in slum areas of Chittagong are willing to pay on average 162 BDT/month. In the research region, a source of reliable drinking water that can support daily life is hard to come by. Therefore, the house- holds want to pay nearly 240 BDT/month to have 24-hr access to an improved water supply as the region is highly climate vulnerable.

rienced episodes of 8–10 days, which results in a longer burden of a smaller proportion of the population. Nearly 20% of children were sick for only 1 day, indicating that although some cases are brief and less severe, a substan- tial proportion of children continue to face extended health challenges due to inadequate water quality and poor sanitation conditions in these communities, and the remaining 4% had a waterborne illness with symptoms that lasted more than 10 days. Facing Different Waterborne Diseases Figure 3 shows the likelihood of children in the study area getting various waterborne diseases. As illustrated, 11% of children were infected by amebiasis, 12% were infected by dysentery, 15% were infected with typhoid, and 18% were infected by cholera. Moreover, 19% were affected by different forms of skin

infections, mainly as a result of consuming dirty water or carrying out their daily chores. Our findings also show that the most preva- lent disease is diarrhea, which affects 25% of children and is regularly associated with bathing or direct contact with contaminated bodies of water. In line with these observations, a review of low- and middle-income countries iden- tified that approximately 60% of deaths due to diarrhea are directly linked to insufficient drinking water, lack of sanitation, and insuf- ficient hygiene (Aydamo et al., 2024). This finding is further supported by other studies (Alemayehu et al., 2021). It should be noted, however, that not all instances of waterborne diseases in children can be blamed directly on water. There are other factors that can influence the waterborne diseases of children in the study areas.

October 2026 • Journal of Environmental Health