Dire situation for children become ‘catastrophic’

A seven-year-old Rohingya girl carries a pot of water to her family’s makeshift shelter after filling it at a hand operated water pump at the Bormapara makeshift settlement

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has warned that more than half-a-millon Rohingya children already living in "horrific" conditions in makeshift settlements in Bangladesh may face compounded risks of disease and displacement due to upcoming cyclone and monsoon seasons.

"What is already a dire humanitarian situation risks becoming a catastrophe," Edouard Beigbeder, the head of UNICEF programmes in Bangladesh said Tuesday, raising alarm over the impact of the approaching cyclone and monsoon seasons.

"Hundreds of thousands of children are already living in horrific conditions, and they will face an even greater risk of disease, flooding, landslides and further displacement."

According to the UN agency, an outbreak of diphtheria in the camps has already claimed some 32 lives, including at least of 24 children, with more than 4,000 suspected cases reported. Diphtheria is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Corynebacterium diphtheria. The illness has an acute onset and is fatal in 5-10% of cases, with a higher mortality rate in young children.

To contain the outbreak and save lives, UN agencies, including UNICEF and the World Health Organisation, WHO, and relief partners are working to vaccinate close to 500,000 children against diphtheria.

But lack of medical services and limited water and sanitation facilities in many settlements, combined with overcrowding, and growing risk of heavy rains and storms could complicate the situation even further.

"Unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene conditions can lead to cholera outbreaks and to Hepatitis E, a deadly disease for pregnant women and their babies, while standing water pools can attract malaria-carrying mosquitos. Keeping children safe from disease must be an absolute priority," Beigbeder added.

Since 25th August, widespread violence in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state has forced over 650,000 members of the Rohingya community to flee their homes and seek shelter across the border in Bangladesh. A number of UN agencies, together with humanitarian partners and the Bangladesh Government have been providing them with life-saving support.