Assist Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

This report has been adapted from an first-hand account of this summer's rainy season in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and Concern’s response by Alimul Islam, Project Manager for Emergency Response, Bangladesh

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The 2021 monsoon rains have caused chaos this week for the 900,000 Rohingya refugees living in the hilly, muddy camps at Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Day after day, the rains have continued, and we’ve witnessed drains become streams become raging torrents.

And then last week, these rains sparked powerful floods, which have washed away people’s homes, food and livelihoods, and landslides, which have killed 20 people (including six children). For the Rohingya who fled conflict in the Rakhine State in 2017 and in just the last year have experienced raging camp fires and the COVID-19 pandemic, this is just the latest challenge.

Floods in this country are nothing new: 75% of Bangladesh sits below sea level. Last year’s floods submerged more than 25% of the country. But in the last two weeks, the rains have been even heavier than usual. For the last four years, I’ve worked in Cox’s Bazar with Concern and I’ve not seen anything like this before — it’s by far the worst.

We are now in an emergency situation. The refugee camp is built on hills, and due to this terrain flash floods have caused landslides. In one camp where Concern works, we lost five people in just one family. The flood waters have been very high: Around some people’s homes in the lowlands, it has reached four or five feet over their homes.

While the floodwaters recede reasonably quickly in some areas because of the closeness to the river and sea, the damage has been done. Family shelters and belongings have been destroyed by the water. They’ve lost cooking utensils, blankets, clothing, and dry food that they’ve been storing (including rice, pulses, and lentils). In some areas, the water doesn’t recede as quickly. Here, landslides have caused water-logging, as the fallen soil from the hills creates a dam. Worryingly, fresh water points and toilets were also damaged by the floods. There’s now a real risk of water-borne diseases.

As part of Concern’s work with people in the Rohingya camps and host communities, we provide support in the form of home gardens. It’s heartbreaking to see 70% of these gardens damaged in the wake of rains, floods, and water logging, especially in the harvest season as many have lost crops that they had yet to pick.

Concern is responding to the flooding by providing emergency dry food items such as rice cakes, sugar, biscuits, bread, honey, and bottled water. We’re also providing people with hygiene and health kits, and non-food items as requested by local authorities in response to the floods.

Most were not able to rebuild their shelters following the massive fire earlier this year in time to prepare for the rainy season, so they’ve had no protection against these floods, and are almost entirely dependent on organizations like Concern for basic necessities.

There’s a further complication in all of this with the growing numbers of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh. As of this writing, we are in the middle of a two-week, nationwide lockdown mandated by the government. On Monday, July 26, Bangladesh registered the highest number of new coronavirus cases and deaths within a single day.These lockdowns have also affected people in the local host community, who haven’t been able to work. Cox’s Bazar is a tourist area, and many of its inhabitants depend on tourism for their livelihoods. Those who didn’t lose their livelihoods to COVID-19 have lost them with lost livestock, poultry, and fish — or in their rice fields, which have been flooded during cultivation season.

We know the rains come each year, but this year has been like no other. Having overcome so much in the last several years, the Rohingya are beginning to rebuild once again, supported by organizations like Concern. We need to work together to make sure people are able to prepare in time for increasingly severe rains, support them in doing so, and help them recover when the unexpected happens.