COX’S BAZAR: Days of heavy rainfall have triggered extreme flooding and landslides in Bangladesh, killing at the least 50 individuals and stranding more than 1 million.
The catastrophe has additionally heightened the danger of public well being threats, together with waterborne illnesses like dengue and cholera, mentioned Sonakshi Dey, the Worldwide Federation of Pink Cross and Pink Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Bangladesh programme director.
With greater than 10,700 water and sanitation amenities broken, restoring entry to secure ingesting water and delivering important aid objects to these affected stay prime priorities, she mentioned.
“This example is sort of grave. The principle downside is the entry to succeed in the individuals, as a result of the geographical topography of the nation can be very troublesome,” she instructed CNA’s Asia First on Tuesday (Jul 14).
The floods have compounded an already difficult humanitarian state of affairs.
Since March, Bangladesh has been grappling with a measles outbreak, with almost 750 confirmed and suspected measles-related deaths.
The IFRC, which has been responding to the outbreak, says its aid efforts are actually being stretched even thinner by the floods and different concurrent emergencies.
“We try to watch the totally different households to see additionally how they’re doing by way of well being as a result of if we are able to establish (illness circumstances) rapidly, then we are able to additionally deal with them,” she mentioned.
She added that aid efforts embody different businesses such because the World Well being Group (WHO) and UNICEF.
