The floods in Bangladesh are thought to be the most severe in 100 years. More than a third of the country has been submerged. At least 115 people have died and more than 5.7 million are affected. The government and NGOs are struggling to cope with the extent of the disaster and warn of risk of disease as well as shortages of crucial supplies including food, medication and clean drinking water. More than half a million homes have been damaged.
The flood inundation has submerged houses, wells, latrines and agricultural lands disrupting basic services and forcing families to seek shelter. Thousands of families are facing severe shortage of food, drinking water and sanitation which can result in outbreak of widespread waterborne diseases. Children are also highly vulnerable to snake bites and drowning in such situation.
The urgent and immediate needs identified are to: (1) distribute food to 10,000 households (i.e. 70.000 people) for 5 days, (2) install 50 tube-wells to ensure the access to safe drinking water, (3) install 50 latrines to reduce to open defecation, (4) provide emergency medical care , (5) distribute seeds to 2,000 households (6) repair and reconstruct around 100 fully or partially damaged schools and community structures.
As the victims' livelihoods have been damaged, it is a foremost thing to provide relief and support. Rehabilitation of the affected households in the villages will ensure that these families come out of the calamity. Their lives will be renewed and their children will be able to go back to school. The displaced families will get back their lives in terms of rebuilding their home, scope for earning to ensure food support and protect them from further deterioration.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
