COX’S BAZAR: Days of heavy rainfall have triggered extreme flooding and landslides in Bangladesh, killing at the very least 50 individuals and stranding more than 1 million.
The catastrophe has additionally heightened the chance of public well being threats, together with waterborne illnesses like dengue and cholera, mentioned Sonakshi Dey, the Worldwide Federation of Crimson Cross and Crimson Crescent Societies’ (IFRC) Bangladesh programme director.
With greater than 10,700 water and sanitation services broken, restoring entry to secure ingesting water and delivering important reduction objects to these affected stay prime priorities, she mentioned.
“This example is sort of grave. The primary downside is the entry to succeed in the individuals, as a result of the geographical topography of the nation can be very troublesome,” she informed 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 reduction efforts at the moment are being stretched even thinner by the floods and different concurrent emergencies.
“We try to observe 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 determine (illness circumstances) shortly, then we are able to additionally deal with them,” she mentioned.
She added that reduction efforts embrace different businesses such because the World Well being Group (WHO) and UNICEF.
