At present, there are about 1.1 million Rohingya refugees inhabited in Bangladesh. According to the U. N. refugee agency, the water rations have been cut off in some of the camps due to shortage of water supplies and sources.
UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic said, “Aid agencies will begin trucking in water in the next two weeks for the more than 140,000 Rohingya refugees living southeast Bangladesh’s Teknaf Peninsula.” He estimates the operation will cost about $60,000 a month.
“We are talking here about 20 liters a day,” Mahecic said. “This is a minimum standard in an emergency and we, because of the shortage of water, had to go even lower now to 15 liters a day per person. This is supposed to meet all of peoples’ needs for water during the day. So, from hygiene, preparing food, sanitation, everything.”
Mahecic notes there is a distinct situation in the northern part of Bangladesh’s Teknaf Peninsula, where the 900,000 Rohingya refugees living in the Kutupalong settlement in Cox’s Bazar have water available through boreholes.
Thankfully parched land in southern headland is expected to last a few more weeks, and will likely be broken when the monsoon season begins in June.
Pre planned for monsoon, UNHCR is building better facilities to capture and preserve rain water. He said, “Hundreds of refugees are participating in a project to create a reservoir to capture monsoon rain in Teknaf and preserve it throughout the year.”
The rain harvesting project is run by the World Food Program with humanitarian agency ADRA and supported by UNHCR, will definitely enhance the situation for a short period.
