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Salinity is a serious environmental issue worldwide, especially in drylands and coastal regions. Dryland salinity is a major environmental degradation problem observed in Australia (Lambers 2003). Seawater intrusion is a major concern in coastal areas of Bangladesh, Brazil, California, China, India, Indonesia, Netherlands, and Vietnam (Chakraborty et al. 2019; Rahaman et al. 2020). The sea‐level rise is a major issue for coastal cities such as Chennai, Cochin, Kolkata, and Mumbai. The major fertile river deltas in India such as Cauvery, Indus, and Krishna are vulnerable to floods and seawater intrusion (Rahaman et al. 2020). The salinity issues in terms of seawater intrusion and sea‐level rise may increase in the future due to climate change, and human activities like an increase in groundwater overdrafts and shrimp culture along the seacoasts, which may affect the coastal ecosystem to a greater extent (Akib Jabed et al. 2018).

Drinking saline water is a global health issue notably in coastal areas. Earlier, a number of studies reported that the people drinking large quantities of saline water may suffer from cardiovascular disease, diarrhoea, rise in blood pressure, hypertension, infant mortality, and skin and respiratory diseases (Dasgupta et al. 2016; Akib Jabed et al. 2018; Chakraborty et al. 2019). Though the salinity is a global issue, its health effects are often seen in low‐income countries where water is poorly treated or totally untreated (Vineis et al. 2011). Health issues such as chronic malnutrition, low‐calorie intake and hypertension were reported in coastal peoples of Bangladesh (Nahian et al. 2017; Rahaman et al. 2020). Mental and respiratory diseases were reported in Australia due to the inland salinity issue (Jardine et al. 2007). Studies in Arizona, Illinois, and Massachusetts, USA, suggested that high intake of salts would lead to raising blood pressure (Tuthill and Calabrese 1981; Welty et al. 1986; Rahaman et al. 2020). A study from Vietnam reported that high salt intake is highly associated with a rise in blood pressure that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (Do et al. 2016). Moreover, the salinity shows some considerable impacts on soil microbial species which lowers the crop productivity (Dasgupta et al. 2017).