Having
slipped and stumbled up the worn-out steps carved into the slope of the
hill, the view from atop makes it very difficult to be optimistic.
Ominous rain clouds hang over hill after hill of bare brown mud, crammed
with makeshift tarpaulin and bamboo structures.
Last
year, these slopes were densely forested, with a few makeshift
settlements for Rohingya people escaping persecution in adjacent
Myanmar. In August 2017 the Myanmar military launched a scorchedearth
operation, which sent thousands of terrified refugees fleeing across the
border each day. Within two months the hills had transformed into the
largest refugee camp in the world.
It
took an unprecedented humanitarian effort by Bangladesh to accommodate
more than 700,000 desperate new arrivals. Government and non-government
agencies rushed to install basic infrastructure. A thousand acres of
forest was razed with astonishing speed to make way for homes.
Much
of the infrastructure built to provide essential services to the new
population became potential threats to their safety. For example, in the
first weeks since August 2017, NGOs dug as many latrines as they could
wherever they could find space, to try and preserve the dignity and
health of the traumatized newcomers. But within weeks, the same
latrines, dug to an inadequate depth, and used far beyond capacity, were
quickly filled up and overflowing. A light shower of rain sent rivulets
of putrid waste running through the camp.
Now
that monsoons and the threat of cyclones is nigh, the vulnerability of
the camp inhabitants is starkly obvious. Already this month an
eight-year-old girl was killed in a landslide. According to the
Emergency Preparedness and Response Report by Inter Sector Coordination
Group (ISCG) as of 22 May, around 200,000 individuals are at risk of
landslide and flood in camps, of which 25,000 are at very high risk.
Some 18,408 people have been relocated from high risk locations or were
otherwise part of risk mitigation efforts.
Moreover,
the density of the population here means that even a small occurrence
disaster could take many lives. UN’s recommends having at least 35
square meters of space per person in any habitation. In the camps there
is less thanfive square meters to each person. Further relocations are
on-going to reduce the density and risk.
“When
we constructed our latrines, we took these dangers into consideration,”
says Farid Ahmed Sagar, senior manager of Climate Change Adaptation and
Disaster Management at Friendship, one of 79 majorNGOs working at the
Rohingya camps. “They are enclosed spaces with bathing rooms and
separate latrines for men and women. They were constructed on raised
cement platforms, in areas that we deemed least likely to flood.”
Friendship
dug its latrine pits to a minimum depth of six feet. Yet, knowing that
eventually even these will fill up, they have constructed two desludging
plants to empty and treat the waste from surrounding latrines. Sagar
points out that each detail represents a struggle. Even finding a space
in the crowded camp, where a project does not inconvenience or disturb
residents in any way, is a difficult task.
Despite
the precautions, it’s impossible to guarantee the safety of the
latrines, says Friendship director Kazi Amdadul Hoque. “Because we have
never worked in this landscape before, we do not know it well. We have
done all our work during the dry season. We can only identify possible
threats and arrange alternatives.”
The
site management at the camp, which is a partnership involving all the
organizations working at each camp block, have been surveying to
identify at-risk facilities and getting the organisations responsible to
dismantle or move these projects. However, their assessments are mere
approximations, given that the landscape has not been tested by severe
flooding or rain.
All
it takes is one flooded latrine to contaminate all the water sources in
an area, destroy the environment, and put the population of the camp at
risk of cholera outbreak. Heavy rain poses other risks. Latrines on
slopes are at risk of collapsing during mudslides.
Bangladesh
has done a herculean job of accommodating the largest fleeing
population of our times. But the entire job was done without regard for
future problems.
Looking
at the landscape from atop the hill, one wonders what might happen if a
bad cyclone were to sweep over the area. How long would it be before
the flimsy bamboo and plastic sheeting would give way? What might the
scale of destruction be in such a densely populated and vulnerable area?
Are there shelters and hospitals equipped to even begin to deal with
such a contingency?
With
the risk of cyclones, rain, and floods around the corner, the upcoming
season will be a trying one in Cox’s Bazar.Now that the immediate
catastrophe of a fleeing population has been negotiated, attention to
long-term disaster preparedness is the next most urgent need.
Support Friendship’ Rohingya response: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/rohingya-crisis-appeal-get-involved/.
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