Livelihood Sustainability Status and Challenges of South-western Coastal Area of Bangladesh

The exposure of disaster varies based on its surroundings and resilience of the people. Apparently, the south-western coastal area of Bangladesh is confronting at great risk for its geophysical settings. Notwithstanding, Bangladesh has a long history of coping with disasters and recovery from damages. This study attempted to measure the livelihood sustainability status that had taken by the rural people of Sutarkhali after the severe cyclonic storm Aila occurred in 2009. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in Sutarkhali union of Dacope Upazila under Khulna District, Bangladesh. Data were collected from different occupational groups living in a coastal community through survey methods using a structured questionnaire. A total of 260 household heads were participated in this study. The study findings reveal that the respondents have changed their livelihood activities after Aila but the livelihood is not sustainable and satisfactory. The overall sustainability score (39.85) identified in this study based on the DFID indicators means, sustainability of the diversified livelihood is unsustainable and less satisfactory. This study also found various constraints towards livelihood sustainability. Based on the weighted average index this study found the major constraints of livelihood sustainability are natural disasters, lack of education, lack of government initiatives, etc.


Introduction
Bangladesh is a least developed country in the world with a population of above 158.9 million living in an area of 147,570 square kilometres (Bangladesh Population Census, 2011). It is a country representing as one of the top-ranked highest population densities, with 1077 living per square kilometre as of the 2011 census estimate. Per capita GDP in Bangladesh is US$ 1610(Bangladesh Economic Review-BER, 2017. About 13 percent of its population lives below the poverty line and 41 percent are engaged in the agriculture sector (HIES-2016). The agriculture sector in all over Bangladesh is vulnerable to the multiplicity of climatic disasters so as the livelihood of the dependent communities (Sarwar, 2005). Both agriculture and allied natural resource-based livelihood are more vulnerable in environmentally stressed areas such as flood plain, haor region/wetland system, and coastal areas of Bangladesh (Miller, 2004). The common sources of vulnerability are recurrent floods mostly riverine floods and sometimes flash floods and inundation of water. Alongside the floods, other climatic extreme events such as cyclonic surges, salinity intrusion, raising sea level have been complicating the already vulnerable socioecological systems in the coastal areas. People living in these areas of Bangladesh are at greater risk of being exposed by these climatic events that make them more vulnerable than any other environmentally stressed area. It is partly because of the unique natural settings of the coast. Especially the southwest coast is only about onemeter from the mean sea level (Haque, 2006). With the raising of sea level, the entire south-west coast is likely to experience severe high surges leading to coastal flooding for prolong period. To cope with the adverse impacts people have been adopting multiple livelihood strategies for their survival and living (Huq et al., 2015). However, all the strategies may not always ascertain to provide adequate income and employment for the households, which they need. Moreover, due to the presence of prevalent various structural barriers such as landlessness, geographical isolation/remoteness, lack of access to technology and finance, and higher incidence of poverty, the livelihood of the rural household has been always severely impacted (Saroar & Routray, 2010). Therefore, the climate changed induced various events have appeared as problem multiplier. In presence of structural barriers, climatic events have been causing more vulnerability of natural resource-dependent coastal communities for numerous reasons (Saroar & Routray, 2010). For instance, due to extreme landlessness and poverty people are forced to live in more hazard-prone areas that increase the possibility of danger/harm. Similarly, due to poverty (poor), people get less protection against disasters' impacts which is jeopardized by low coping capacity during and after the hazardous event that turns them into a highly vulnerable situation. Again, as they often have a very limited set of occupational skills, job diversification as coping and adaptation strategy usually do not works well especially where there is policy negligence to support and promote occupational diversification through planned skill enhancement program (Saroar et al., 2015). Some cases even initiatives of various agencies and stakeholders' mismatch and often create a hurdle to diversify household livelihood activities as well as the potentiality of livelihood sustainability (UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, 2002 cited in (Gwimbi, 2009).
The linkage between disaster exposures, degradation of resource-base, vulnerability and coping/adaptation through occupational diversification has been well documented in disaster literature (Abdellati et al., 2003;Adger, 2000;Brooks, 2000;Berkes, 1989, Haque, 2006Huq et al., 2015;Paul, 2014;Saroar & Routray, 2010;Saroar et al., 2015;Sarwar, 2005). Many of them have compared the pre-disaster situation of livelihood with the post-disaster livelihood situation. However, the common limitations of these studies are-a) they are heavily drawing on qualitative nature of inquiry which is very hard to generalize; b) most studies have done in macro-context, leaving the local community unaddressed; c) none of these studies has done in the Sutarkhali Union of Dacope Upazila in south-west Khulna. Only notable exceptions are Paul (2014) and Saroar et al. (2015) who did in Dacope Upazila or sites close to Dacope Upazila but only have focused on the impact of cyclonic surges and salinity on livelihood from a broader sense. This study fills these research gaps in three ways. First, it has assessed the sustainability of livelihood of Sutarkhali residents using a quantitative index which could be generalized and replicated elsewhere; second, it has established the connection between the livelihood diversification and the sustainability of livelihood of natural resource-dependent community in the local context; third, it has identified a host of factors that affect livelihood diversification. Finally, the study findings come up with a set of policy suggestion to enhance the sustainability of livelihood by enhancing livelihood diversification in the post-Aila situation. The motivation behind the study is as follows. A multiplicity of disasters including cyclonic surges, salinity intrusion seriously affects the diversification of livelihood strategies among rural households in Sutarkhali union. In recent years, the proportions of income from fishing and forest resources collection have fallen, while the contribution of self-employed incomegenerating activities increased. Although, thediversifiedengagement in multifacedactivities has increased their income level, however, so many people are still struggling to earn their required income. Sutarkhali union is situated beside the mighty Sundarbans mangrove forest in the South-westerm coastal belt.Comparatively, this coasal belt is more vulnerable to natural disasters than most of the other areas of Bangladesh. Numbers of natural disasters had already occurred in these areas causing a great loss of lives and properties. The study revealed that the people of Sutarkhali union have developed some mechanisms of living, but still, these ways are yet to achive the satisfactorysustainability level. Thus, this study was undertaken to assess these barriers of achieving post-Aila livelihood sustainability in the coastal community of Sutarkhali union.

Design
This was a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted in Sutarkhali union of Dacope Upazila under Khulna District, Bangladesh. Data were collected from different occupational groups living in a coastal community through survey methods using a structured questionnaire.

Population and Sampling
A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was applied to select study participants from thecoastal community of Bangladesh. In the first stage, we purposively selected Khulna district of Bangladesh as it was affected by Aila in 2009. Secondly, from the 9 Upazilas of Khulna District, Dacope Upazila was selected purposively as it was one of the worst affected coastal Upazilas. Thirdly, out of 10 unions of Dacope Upazila, Sutarkhali union was chosen considering the fact that it was the most devasted area affectd by cyclone Aila. Sutarkhali union covers the same geographical area of DacopeUpazila adjacent to the Sundarbans. Fourthly, five wards out of ten (from this union) were selected randomly. According to the Population Census (BBS, 2011), Sutarkhali union contains 48.93 sq.km area with a total population of 30,060 in 7,463 households. The sampling frame includes the household heads. Out of 7463 household heads, 260 household heads were determined as the sample size using an assumed 95% confidence level and 5% error margin. Then 52 participants from each sampled five wards were chosen following the systematic random sampling technique.The data were collected during 1-25 April in 2018.

Statistics and Data Analysis
This study followed the (DFID, 1999) framework by incorporating five livelihood capitals along with appropriate indicators for each capital. The lists of indicators as well as the calculations made in this research to produce micro-indices for each indicator based on the livelihood pattern of every respondent of this study are adopted from livelihood studies (Kamaruddin & Samsudin, 2014;Khadija, 2014;Prajapati, 2014;and Paul, 2015). The exactly same formulas were applied for calculating human, natural, physical and social capital index (Box 1) whereas, a slightly different formula (Box 1) was adopted to calculate financial capital index. Finally, the average mean scores of the livelihood capitals were summed up to acquire the sustainability value of the study area and compared with DFID standards (Khodijah, 2014;Prajapati, 2014) in Table 1. Solving own problems 3.
Exposing idea in group meeting 4.
Training for farming 5.
Training for livestock rearing Natural Capital (NC) 1. Access to forest 2.
Access to fishing into river 3.
Access to Natural Grazing land Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706559 4. Sufficiency of water for irrigation 5.
Available safe drinking water Physical Capital (PC)

Possession of Boat 2.
Possession of fishing net 3.
Possession of agricultural tools 4.
Possession of phone 5.
Possession of engine-boat for rent Social Capital (SC) 1. Access to Community Health Center 2.
Access to Union Parishad 3.
Access to NGOs 4.
Membership in community groups 5.
Membership in political parties Financial Capital (FC) 1. Saving money in bank 2.
Monetary value of all livestock 3.
Price of all crops 4.
Price of all domestic birds 5.
Access to Bank/NGOs for loan Steps of sustainable livelihood assets calculation developed by (Cahyat et al., 2007) was followed found in Khodijah (2014;p.4). The data were normalized through the following steps.  Khodijah (2014) and Prajapati (2014) The third and final part of this study deals with the measurements of the major constraints achieving sustainable livelihoods of the study area. Garrett (Garrett, 1952) ranking analytical technique was used to find out the most possible barriers to livelihood sustainability (Dhanavandan, 2016;Sedaghat, 2011). A total of eleven constraints or barriers to sustainable livelihood were taken into consideration in consultation with the people of the study area during field observations. These hypothesized barriers are lack of education, poor asset, lack of credit facilities, lack of awareness and training, fear of taking the risk, natural disasters, lack of opportunities, bad road transportation/communications, lack of electricity, lack of government -and -NGOs initiatives.
As per this method, respondents were asked to assign the rank for all barriers and the outcomes of such ranking were converted into score value with the help of the following formula (Radhakrishnan, et al., 2017;Dhanavandan, 2016). Then the constraints were arranged in descending order to find out respondent's perspective about major constraints towards sustainable livelihood (Christy, 2014;Dhanavandan, 2016;Garrett & Woodworth, 1969). The factors having highest mean value is considered the most important barriers towards livelihood sustainability (Dhanavandan, 2016).
Where, Rij= Rank given for the i th variable by j th respondents Nj= number of variables ranked by j th respondents

General Characteristics of the Respondents
Answers given by 260 respondents were analyzed for the purpose of the study. Note: Formula adopted from (Paul, 2015) Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706559 no formal education and the rest had completed higher secondary and graduate level. A considerable number of respondents (136/52%) drink pond water through various filtration and many of drink directly whereas (124/48%) family reserve rainwater for further drinking. Survey results show that sustainable livelihood status of the respondents varies according to five dimensions which further encompass various indicators. The calculated average mean score indicates the extent and availability of livelihood indicators and assets possession. Among the five dimensions' financial capital acquired the lowest score (0.81), followed by human capital assets (1.52). It is evident from the data presented in the above table (4), natural capital index (1.76), physical capital index (1.56) and social capital index (1.55) have attained poor mean scores. The remaining sub-indicators like possession of fishing net, agricultural tools, cellphone, engine-boat for rent, access to the community health center, Union Parishad, NGOs, and membership in community groups, or political parties were appeared with too much less average mean score, which is indicating that these sub indicators had not changed their status for sustainable livelihood, among the respondents. After summing-up all the scores the study obtained (35.91) a cumulative score which indicates the respondents were having medium extent of sustainable livelihood status. Thus, it leads to draw a conclusion that the indicators of SL in the study area are poor; and people possess fewer assets. The feasible reasons for such type of results might be due to geophysical causes and disasters. Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706559 The radar diagram (Figure 1) above demonstrates the calculated scores of five livelihood capital, which indices to present in livelihood asset pentagon. The shape of the pentagon narrates the variations of livelihood capitals and accessibility. In terms of access to assets and possession of assets, the center of the pentagon represents the zero value. While deviations from the middle-point of the pentagon to outer sides illustrate higher values of livelihood capitals occupy by the people of the study area. Overall Sustainability status of the livelihood in the area: Findings of the Table 5 show that most of the performing livelihoods are unsustainable because the obtained value lies between 39.55 and 46.70. However, shrimp cultivation obtained the highest individual sustainability score. Obtained score is 39.85 lies between 25.01 and 50.00 which indicate the sustainability status is less sustainable.

Challenges to Livelihood Sustainability
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706559 For this study participants were asked to rank the eleven predetermined factors those affect the sustainability of the livelihood status of the study area. Several barriers experienced by the people of Sutarkhali union were identified during this step. The study revealed that, the major challenges or barriers experienced by respondents are the natural disasters (81.92) i.e. (river bank erosion, inundation, high salinity intrusion, and cyclone), while the other frequently barrier faced by the respondents is lack of education (77.19). Here, lack of government initiatives (75.15) obtained the third possible barriers of livelihood sustainability. Consecutively, the other constraints have obtained the position based on the rankings of the respondents.

Discussion
Sustainable livelihood approach is one of the effective pathways of eradicating poverty and enhancing food security (Krantz, 2001). Sustainable livelihood characterizes activities, capacities and assets that can help coping with and recover from stresses and shocks without undermining the natural resources ensuring equal livelihood opportunities for future generations (Chamber & Conway, 1992). In this study area we found-catching fish and crab in river, cutting wood in the nearby forest, agriculture, shrimp cultivation, rearing livestock, poultry farming, micro-business, jobs in GO/NGO offices, day labor and driving boat are the most performing livelihoods. But majority of these livelihoods are less sustainable due to high dependency on natural resources while there exists a nexus between livelihood sustainability and environmental variability.
The coastal area of Bangladesh has an exceptional natural setting but more likely of being affected by frequent natural disasters resulted in loosing lives, assets and livelihoods. So, the coastal community cannot maintain their livelihood in a sustainable way for factors associated with natural disasters which need to be addressed timely.
Despite having good human capitals in this community in terms of disaster related training, lack of financial paucity makes the sustainability status of the livelihoods are less sustainable. Besides, regarding the asset endowment coastal people owned less financial capital to recover or diversify their livelihood through reinvestment that hinders their livelihood resiliency. Previous study of Huq et al., 2015, in the south-west coastal area of Bangladesh pointed out that fewer livelihood resources withstand the recovery process and lead to persistent and prolonged impact in many cases. Majority of the coastal households have single livelihood activity that also increasing the risk of livelihood insecurity during natural hazards such as river bank erosion, salinity intrusion, flooding, and storm surges etc.
Moreover, their livelihood activities are seasonal based which keep them about half of the year unemployed that also create unsustainable livelihood status which is worst for the day laborers (PDO-ICZM, 2002). The financial capital context in this area is in the worst position due to various reasons. One of the dominant factors is salinity Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3706559 intrusion that hampers agricultural production and even raring domestic animals become very complicated. Due to high salinity finding grazing land and arranging cattle food for domestic animals become tough. Further, lack of employment and limited accessibility in credit facilities makes their financial capital status poor comparing to other parts of the country. In terms of livelihood sustainability shrimp cultivation is somewhat in good position but catching fish and crab is unsustainable due to recent imposing of different terms and conditions on the changing legislation, of the concerned department of Bangladesh government.
This finding agrees with Townsley (2004) who argued that the livelihoods which are dependent on natural resources impacted more with the change of legislature and regulation of utilizing such resources. Though some sorts of initiatives are undertaken and many are undergoing by Govt. of Bangladesh in order to improve the livelihood status through integrated coastal zone management but the existing barriers and constraints questioned the aptness of these initiatives.
A study of Khatun (2012) in West-Bengal India, documented at least ten possible constraints which may obstruct the sustainability of the livelihood where natural disaster is documented as the prime cause of livelihood unsustainability. Another study of Fakhruddin & Rahman (2015) documented that disasters are the dominant threat to coastal lives and livelihoods. Our finding is in line with these findings and identified frequent natural disaster in this coastal community as the principal cause of unsustainable livelihood.
Among the other constraints poor transportation or communication infrastructure is also notable.Due to remote and lack of affordable and available transport the producer of agricultural products does not get fair price that also make this livelihood vulnerable and insecure. This situation can be improved if community level enterprise is operated in coastal area along with the opportunity to get market information available at grassroots level. Further, proper training and initiatives should be taken into consideration to make the livelihood in sustainable manner. Wider development initiatives must be put in place to cope with the frequent natural disasters, minimize the loss of lives, wealth and livelihood. No doubt many initiatives have been taken with the cooperation of national and international organizations, unfortunately, that hardly fulfill the local demand. Most importantly, the indigenous knowledge should be promoted here to make the initiatives sustainable and fruitful.
The key facts this study put emphasis is that we need to characterize the impact of the adaption measurement before we propose them for the coastal people. The potential steps which this study indicated herein that can be a driving force towards improving the capability of rural people. This might ameliorate their potentiality, adaptive capacities, and resiliency to extinguish the impact of any kinds of disasters that will promote the sustainability of livelihood. Further research work in a broad scale needs to be taken for identifying the community demands for sustainable livelihood activities to achieve SDG 14 in the context of Bangladesh.

Conclusion
Livelihood activities in the coastal areas of Bangladesh are not environmentally and economically sustainable due to multiplicity of factors ranging from personal, social, natural and policy affairs. However, natural hazards surpass all other factors that adversely affects their lives and livelihoods. So, disaster management programs targeting sustainable livelihood options should be implemented in those coastal areas. Financial sustainability of coastal region needs to be ensured through creating institutions that will provide collateral free credit access to vulnerable people. Communication infrastructure requires improvements through construction or reconstruction work which is necessary to avail easy access to market or other places that provide public services. Moreover, policy support is required to provided more employment opportunities addressing the vulnerability context of the coastal belt. Hence, people can switch between multiple livelihood options or can adapt various livelihoods at a time which can help them to diversify their income sources and in turn would aid them to be more capable of tackling all sorts of stresses and shocks resulted from natural hazards.

Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding
This research received no external funding.

Authors contribution and Acknowledgements MAR:
Conceptualized, formal analysis, writing original draft, methodology and literature review. NF: Writing original draft and critically reviewed, editing original draft, and checked English language. SA: Critically reviewed the manuscript and formatting the original draft. BK: Critically review the original draft, formal analysis and literature review and approved the manuscript for submission. TEAS: critically reviewed the original draft, checked the formatting and English editing. MHH: Supervise, conceptualize methodology, writing original draft, finalize and formal approval for submission.
We are very grateful to the respondents for their cooperation during data collection. We want to offer our special thanks to Development Studies Discipline, Khulna University, Bangladesh for the approval of this study.