The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is set to launch a programme to cut the risk of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) and cholera among the Rohingyas who have taken refuge in Bangladesh fleeing from Myanmar.
Under the response programme, UNICEF will ensure installation of 2,625 water points, 15,750 latrines, 21,000 hand-washing devices, supplying safe water at health centres, and launching infection control activities in the latrines located inside multiple refugee camps.
The announcement was made by the UNICEF Bangladesh chief of health Maya Vandenant on Friday at a press briefing held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva of Switzerland, according to a UNICEF press release.
"What we are seeing is that people are exhausted and children are at risk of diseases. There are real risks of AWD and cholera. We are very concerned. Therefore, we are mounting a response in the health sector", said Vandenant.
As of last week, 5,011 cases of diarrhoea have been reported by the aid workers in different refugee camps, according to the release.
Around 515,000 Rohingyas have taken refuge in Cox's Bazar since 25th August 2017, of which 225,000 are living in spontaneous unplanned settlements with very limited Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure.
Around 60 per cent of the refugees are children and 30 per cent of them are under five years old.
Since 25th August, over 300 tube-wells and 3,000 latrines have been constructed to improve WASH within both the extended existing makeshift settlements and the new spontaneous settlements.
There are high levels of severe malnutrition amongst child refugees which exacerbates the risks associated with an outbreak of waterborne diseases, specially diarrhoea and cholera.
The UNICEF official said, "Planning of the extension camps is largely absent and there is no infrastructure for good sanitation and drainage. We see that after the rains, water flushes the camps everywhere including the toilets."
UNICEF will also collaborate in cholera prevention initiatives taken by World Health Organisation (WHO), International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b), and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).
The oral cholera vaccination campaign to prevent cholera targeting all children over one year old is planned in October, and 900,000 doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in Bangladesh on October 7. The vaccination campaign is expected to start on October 10, the prelease added.
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