Monsoon rains batter Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh
More heavy downpours are expected throughout next week
Heavy monsoon rains and squally weather destroyed around 273 shelters of Rohingyas and injured 11 people in the Cox’s Bazar settlement on Friday.
The Rohingya camps were hit by three days of non-stop rain, and more heavy downpours are expected throughout next week, with four months of the monsoon season still to go.
UNHCR and partners trained Refugee volunteers who worked throughout the night on Wednesday in heavy rain, to help people in urgent need.
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They have also rescued refugees from shelters destroyed by the landslides and temporarily relocated 2,137 people.
Emergency supplies are being distributed to help rebuild, repair and strengthen damaged shelters.
Since January, around 21,000 refugees have been employed each month by the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP), under a cash for work scheme, assisting disaster risk reduction and engineering work designed to make the camps safer, including the stabilisation of slopes.
The UN agencies are also reforesting the camp areas to reduce the risk of landslides.
“UN agencies and NGOs will complete reforestation work across more than 200 hectares of the camps, which will help to stabilise the land and reduce the risk of landslides,” said Herve Verhoosel, WFP spokesperson, at a press briefing at the UN Office in Geneva on Friday, adding “ WFP is responsible for around 40% of the reforestation, with technical inputs from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO.”
“Food stocks for thousands of refugees have been damaged by the flood in Cox’s Bazar. WFP has been providing 4,889 people with high energy biscuits and hot meals, and has enough supplies to feed more than 160,000 people in an emergency.”
He further added that almost two years after the 2017 influx of Rohingya in Bangladesh, the situation remains critical and unchanged.
The refugees’ life remains highly vulnerable. WFP spends US$24 million every month to feed almost 900,000 refugees and, without support from the international community, the situation of these refugees would become increasingly vulnerable.
