|
Field
Abstract
|
Before
Climate change-induced salinization (CCIS) poses a significant public health threat in low-elevation coastal zones like Bangladesh, degrading drinking water quality and contributing to adverse outcomes, including hypertension and reduced productivity. While these risks are increasingly documented, critical evidence gaps persist regarding effective, scalable interventions that foster the sustained adoption of safe water alternatives, particularly given behavioural barriers such as cost sensitivity and taste acclimatization. This project aims to fill this gap through a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Khulna, Bangladesh, an area severely impacted by CCIS. We propose to experimentally evaluate an innovative intervention that combines gradually decreasing ("tapered") subsidies for desalinated water with targeted information dissemination and behavioural nudges designed to promote habit formation. Key goals are to rigorously assess the intervention's effectiveness in achieving sustained safe water adoption post-subsidy, measure impacts on adult physical and mental health and child health outcomes, and generate actionable, cost-effectiveness evidence to inform policy. Findings will provide tangible evidence for community-level adaptation and health improvements on the ground, directly inform Bangladesh's critical National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contribution updates, and contribute a scalable, evidence-based model for addressing CCIS challenges in resource-constrained coastal regions throughout the Global South.
|
After
Climate change-induced salinization (CCIS) poses a significant public health threat in low-elevation coastal zones like Bangladesh, degrading drinking water quality and contributing to adverse outcomes, including hypertension and reduced productivity. While these risks are increasingly documented, critical evidence gaps persist regarding effective, scalable interventions that foster the sustained adoption of safe water alternatives, particularly given behavioural barriers such as cost sensitivity and taste acclimatization. This project aims to fill this gap through a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Khulna, Bangladesh, an area severely impacted by CCIS. We propose to experimentally evaluate an innovative intervention that combines subsidies for desalinated water with targeted information dissemination and behavioural nudges designed to promote habit formation. Key goals are to rigorously assess the intervention's effectiveness in achieving sustained safe water adoption post-subsidy, measure impacts on adult physical and mental health and child health outcomes, and generate actionable, cost-effectiveness evidence to inform policy. Findings will provide tangible evidence for community-level adaptation and health improvements on the ground, directly inform Bangladesh's critical National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contribution updates, and contribute a scalable, evidence-based model for addressing CCIS challenges in resource-constrained coastal regions throughout the Global South.
|
|
Field
Last Published
|
Before
June 30, 2025 06:13 AM
|
After
May 18, 2026 10:44 PM
|
|
Field
Intervention (Public)
|
Before
An experimental evaluation of an innovative intervention combining tapered subsidies with targeted information strategies designed explicitly to counter the identified behavioural barriers. Introducing desalinated water via initially high, then gradually reducing ("tapered") subsidies addresses affordability while countering price anchoring effects and avoiding the 'cliff-edge' withdrawal of support that plagues flat subsidies, thereby encouraging habit formation around payment. Additionally, daily nudges via visual labels on distributed water jars reinforce risk awareness and safe behaviour.
|
After
An experimental evaluation of an innovative intervention combining subsidies with targeted information strategies designed explicitly to counter the identified behavioural barriers. Introducing desalinated water via subsidies addresses affordability and thereby encouraging habit formation around payment. Additionally, daily nudges via visual labels on distributed water jars reinforce risk awareness and safe behaviour.
|
|
Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
|
Before
Key outcome measures include desalinated water adoption rates, updated WTP, reported morbidity, health expenditures, blood pressure measurements (adults), anthropometric measurements (children < 5), mental health indicators, and relevant economic outcomes (e.g., productivity)
|
After
knowledge and perceptions of saline water and its adverse health effects; desalinated water adoption rates; reported morbidity; health expenditures; willingness to pay (WTP); mental health indicators.
|
|
Field
Experimental Design (Public)
|
Before
A cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) conducted over 12 months in communities within Khulna, Bangladesh. The intervention combines two key elements designed to address identified financial and behavioural barriers:
a. Households in treatment arms receive desalinated water, initially fully subsidised, with the subsidy gradually decreasing over the intervention period.
b. The treatment group will also receive targeted information, including visual demonstrations of salinity risks using electrolyzers and visual cues/messages on water jars to reinforce awareness and nudge behaviour.
|
After
A cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT) was conducted over 12 months in communities within Khulna, Bangladesh. The intervention combines two key elements designed to address identified financial and behavioral barriers:
a. Households in treatment arms receive desalinated water, fully subsidized. over the intervention period.
b. The treatment group will also receive targeted information, including visual demonstrations of salinity risks using electrolyzers and visual cues/messages on water jars to reinforce awareness and nudge behaviour.
|
|
Field
Keyword(s)
|
Before
Behavior, Environment And Energy, Health
|
After
Behavior, Environment And Energy, Health, Labor
|
|
Field
Secondary Outcomes (End Points)
|
Before
|
After
Educational outcomes among school-going children, knowledge of adolescent girls regarding birth control pills, and the adverse effects of birth control pill use on menstrual health.
|