GovTwin / Institution
Jhenaidah District
Local Gov
A landlocked agrarian district in the southwest, Jhenaidah sits on the dry, low-rainfall Ganges-floodplain belt and lives off paddy, vegetables, and date-palm jaggery. It is a mid-poor district by national wealth standing with rising built-up sprawl around its towns but very little surface water of its own.
Wealth rank 25/64
(1 = poorest district)
Warming +0.45°C
(1980s–2020s)
Air NO₂ #32/64
(1 = most polluted)
Night-lights +87%
(2014–23 activity)
Built-up 31 km²
Forest loss 40 ha
(2001–23)
Rainfall 1,681 mm/yr
Indicators: Meta RWI (HDX); ERA5-Land; MODIS; Sentinel-5P; VIIRS night-lights; GHSL; Hansen v1.11; CHIRPS v2.0. Exposure: GloFAS v2.1, FABDEM, MODIS LST, ACAG PM2.5, WorldPop 2020.
Problems and issues
- poverty Mean Relative Wealth Index of -0.101 leaves Jhenaidah the 25th-poorest of 64 districts, a structurally below-average rural economy with thin off-farm employment. So what: A quarter of the country is poorer, but Jhenaidah is firmly in the bottom half, so it needs targeted livelihood and credit support rather than being treated as a middle-income district. Source: Meta Data for Good Relative Wealth Index (HDX), ~2.4 km grid
- air quality Aerosol optical depth of 0.712 ranks Jhenaidah 12th-worst of 64 districts for particulate haze, driven by transboundary smoke, brick kilns, and crop-residue burning over the dry southwest plain. So what: Sustained high aerosol loading raises respiratory and cardiovascular disease burden in a district with limited health infrastructure, and depresses solar and agricultural productivity. Source: MODIS MAIAC aerosol optical depth (550 nm) via Google Earth Engine
- water Only 0.6 km2 of permanent surface water means Jhenaidah depends almost entirely on groundwater for dry-season irrigation and drinking supply. So what: Near-total reliance on aquifers in a low-rainfall district exposes farmers and households to water-table decline and arsenic risk, demanding active groundwater monitoring. Source: JRC Global Surface Water (permanent water) via Google Earth Engine
- climate disaster Air temperature has warmed 0.45 C while annual rainfall sits at 1681 mm, among the lower totals nationally, sharpening pre-monsoon heat and dry-season moisture stress. So what: Hotter, dry-leaning conditions threaten Boro paddy and vegetable yields and increase irrigation demand exactly where surface water is scarce. Source: ERA5-Land reanalysis (Copernicus/ECMWF) via Google Earth Engine, district mean
- urbanization Built-up area has grown 68 percent since 2000 to 31.4 km2, expanding onto fertile cropland around Jhenaidah town and Kotchandpur. So what: Unplanned conversion of prime agricultural land to settlement permanently erodes the district's farm base and outpaces drainage and services. Source: GHSL built-up surface (JRC) via Google Earth Engine
Probable solutions
- Expand dry-season surface-water harvesting through re-excavation of khals and ponds plus monitored conjunctive use, reducing pressure on the aquifer for Boro irrigation. Responsible: Bangladesh Water Development Board and Department of Public Health Engineering · policy proposal
- Convert fixed-chimney brick kilns to zigzag or block-brick technology and enforce a ban on open crop-residue burning during the dry season. Responsible: Department of Environment · Brick Manufacturing and Kiln Establishment (Control) Act
- Scale agro-processing of date-palm jaggery and vegetables with cold-chain and SME credit to add off-farm income and value retention. Responsible: Department of Agricultural Extension and SME Foundation · policy proposal
- Adopt and enforce district land-use zoning that protects classified agricultural land from conversion to settlement. Responsible: Local Government Engineering Department and Department of Land Records and Survey · policy proposal