The Evolution of a Floodplain Aquaculture Management System in Bangladesh

A collective floodplain aquaculture (FPA) management approach, developed in the Daudkandi sub-district of Bangladesh, has become popular among local landowners of floodplains for managing aquacultural operation in their lands. Taking inspiration from a small-scale FPA formed by landowners, an NGO modernized the approach when it collaborated with the community in applying the management approach in a larger floodplain in 1996. Since then, the success of the early FPA resulted in proliferation of more NGO-collaborated FPAs and independently-formed FPAs. In this paper, we try to find how this management system has evolved over time in both types of FPAs. By studying 15 FPAs selected from five districts, we tried to identify the modifications in organizational and operational aspects of these FPAs. In the Daudkandi region, we observed that, as the realization of profitability increased among the landowners, they not only formed new FPAs by themselves but also, in some FPAs, tried to confine the rising benefits among themselves by excluding non-landowners’ participants. We also found the emergence of professional aquacultural managers who manage the aquacultural operation of an FPA by leasing it from FPA’s management committee. We conclude that, in the Daudkandi sub-district, the FPAs evolved along the way as users adaptively responded to the problem of lower profits by innovating lease-based management. In other parts of the country, where the FPA trend is relatively new and the FPA management committees were found to be still running the aquacultural operation instead of leasing it, the direction of the evolution should be carefully examined in the context of the community resource management

Intestinal Infestations in Under-Five Children in Zambia

Background: Intestinal infestations are of considerable public health importance in Zambia and elsewhere in Africa. Children aged less than 5 years are at the highest risk of infection. Interventions for prevention and control of these infestations require identification of their determinants. This study investigates the determinants of intestinal infestations in children below 5 years of age admitted to a children’s hospital and assesses the most prevalent of the helminthes. Methods: This was a hospital based cross-sectional study conducted at Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital, Ndola, Zambia. Socio-demographic data of study participants and possible determinants for occurrence of intestinal infestations were collected using structured questionnaires. Stool samples were collected and examined for presence of parasites using direct techniques. The Pearson’s Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to establish associations. Results: Present study had 148 participants out of the expected 165, making a respondent rate of 89.7%. Over half of the participants were male (50.6%), and 68.9% were above the age of 2 years. Prevalence of intestinal infestations was 19.6%, and the most prevalent parasite was Ascaris lumbricoides. Factors independently associated with worm infestation were father’s employment (AOR = 0.41; 95 % CI [0.19, 0.90]) and history of prior worm infestation (AOR = 6.54; 95 % CI [3.28, 13.03]). Conclusion: Intestinal infestations particularly Ascaris lumbricoides were more prevalent in this study. There should be policy towards countrywide deworming programs and enhanced hygiene. Key words: Intestinal Infestations • Under Five Children • Ascaris Lumbricoides • Zambia Copyright © 2015 Mwale and Siziya. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited