Flood havoc during 2019 in the Sangu River basin caused widespread damage to residents, crops, roads, and communications in parts of hills in Bangladesh. Developing flood hazard maps can play an essential step in risks management. For this purpose, this study assessed 12 hydro‐geomorphological factors, namely, topographic wetness index, elevation, slope, extreme rainfall, land‐use and land‐cover, soil type, lithology, curvature, drainage density, aspect, height above the nearest drainage, and distance from streams. Maps prepared by individual application of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Analytical Network Process (ANP) exhibit validation scores ranging from 0.77 to 0.79. It is found that the ANP‐based model under 1‐day maximum rainfall denotes a reliable hazard map presenting comparable accuracy to the field results. The hazard map under 100‐year return periods shows that a total of 0.71 million population living downstream is prone to “very high” flood because of its lowland morphology, mild slope, and high drainage density. Alarmingly, 39% of roads, 43% of farming lands, and 25% of education buildings are observed to lie in the highest flood‐prone area. Details on subdistrict level exposures have the potential to serve the decision‐makers and planners in site selection for flood management strategies and setting priorities for remedial measures.

Substantial progress has been seen in the drinking water supply as per the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), but achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SGD 6.1 regarding safely managed drinking water with much more stringent targets, is considered as a development challenge. The problem is more acute in low-income water-scarce hard-to-reach areas such as the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh, where complex hydrogeological conditions and adverse water quality contribute to a highly vulnerable and insecure water environment. Following the background, this study investigated the challenges and potential solutions to drinking water insecurity in a water-scarce area of southwest coastal Bangladesh using a mixed-methods approach. The findings revealed that water insecurity arises from unimproved, deteriorated, unaffordable, and unreliable sources that have significant time and distance burdens. High rates of technical dysfunction of the existing water infrastructure contribute to water insecurity as well. Consequently, safely managed water services are accessible to only 12% of the population, whereas 64% of the population does not have basic water. To reach the SDG 6.1 target, this underserved community needs well-functioning readily accessible water infrastructure with formal institutional arrangement rather than self-governance, which seems unsuccessful in this low-income context. This study will help the government and its development partners in implementing SDG action plans around investments to a reliable supply of safe water to the people living in water-scarce hard-to-reach coastal areas.

The rapid expansion of slums with increasing population density are the main barriers to scaling-up sustainable Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities in the megalopolis of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The improper arrangement of ‘Cheap WASH’ (i.e., water access, sanitation access, and hygiene practices) and unmanaged disposal of non-biodegradable menstrual hygiene wastes, single-use medical, and plastic usage at slums are making the environment of city surroundings unfavourable and vulnerable posing a great threat to public health. Among the slum-dwellers, particularly, females with a disability are mostly the worst affected and vulnerable due to unfavourable conditions and lack of necessary support. Following the backdrops, this study purposively selected two Dhaka slums, with and without disabled-friendly facilities, to investigate female perspectives on different aspects related to WASH and menstrual hygiene management (MHM) for females with a disability. In total, 30 in-depth interviews, 12 focus group discussions, and 22 key informant interviews were conducted at Korail and Kalyanpur slums. Case studies from the megalopolis of Dhaka, Bangladesh, capture the economic burden added to the budgetary deficits of the family with female-disabled. Discrimination in extra care needed for toilet facilities, MHM education, and transport and overlooking the caretaker's requirement or loss in income are found as additional burdens.