ADB approves $41.4m grant for Rohingyas

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday approved a $41.4 million grant to help improve infrastructure and manage the basic needs of displaced persons from Myanmar sheltered in Cox's Bazar of Bangladesh.

The grant forms the second phase of ADB's ongoing Emergency Assistance Project, a $100 million grant approved in 2018, read a press statement.

"The new assistance will strengthen the resilience against Covid-19 and any future pandemic by expanding health facilities and improving water supply and sanitation," said ADB Country Director for Bangladesh Edimon Ginting.

"Disaster shelter centres, health facilities, improved water supply and sanitation, and better waste management that will be provided with ADB assistance, will reduce disaster risks and serve basic human needs of the camp population until their repatriation," he added.

The grant approved yesterday will build 200 water and sanitation facilities and three solid waste management facilities, and establish a piped water supply system at Ukhiya. It will, among others, upgrade four health care facilities for severe acute respiratory infection, expand six primary health care and diagnostic centres in Teknaf, improve the skills of health care workers in Cox's Bazar district, and construct a multipurpose disaster-resilient isolation centre to help with the Covid-19 response.

The Cox's Bazar district is in the south-eastern part of Bangladesh which is highly susceptible to disasters triggered by natural hazards. To strengthen disaster resilience and help protect displaced persons, six school-cum-cyclone shelters in local primary schools and one multipurpose cyclone shelter, which will also function as a Covid-19 isolation centre, will be constructed. About 13 kilometres of rural access roads leading to the camp facilities will be upgraded.

In addition to the new grant assistance, ADB on Wednesday approved a $30 million concessional loan to rehabilitate a 30.76km section of National Highway-1 to improve the transportation of relief and essential goods between Teknaf and Cox's Bazar. The improved road will facilitate economic activities and income generation in the region, benefiting both the displaced persons from Myanmar sheltered in the camps and the host community.

ADB support has so far provided clean drinking water, bathing facilities, food distribution centres, and disaster shelters benefitting over 1.2 million people in the camps and host communities, the press statement added.

Safety in the camps also improved through solar street lamps, and lightning arresters. Roads, walkways, and bridges inside the camps improved the overall management of the camps as well as food distribution and other services, it also said.