Kutuplong refugess camp, Bangladesh, 2017-09-30

Even as efforts are underway at the international level to resolve the Rohingya crisis, the UN Refugee agency, heavy monsoon rain is compounding the risk of disease outbreak, with field doctors reporting a huge spike in cases of severe diarrhoea, especially among children.
UNHCR has started giving plastic sheeting to them the moment they arrive at refugee settlements in Bangladesh from Myanmar. This is part of its effort to cut the time Rohingya refugees like Suruz spend in the open. Meanwhile the UN has warned of a humanitarian "nightmare" unfolding in Bangladesh's refugee camps, where half a million people have taken shelter after fleeing violence in Myanmar in unprecedented waves. With a lack of clean water and toilets, aid workers say a major health disaster is imminent.
According to UNHCR, teams are also scouting known crossing points on the border with Myanmar, to hand plastic sheets and other aid to refugees as soon as they enter the country.Suruz Jahan, 75, her son and grand children received a UNHCR tarp in Kutupalong refugee camp. Suruz Jahan trekked for days through the rain to escape violence in Myanmar. After reaching Bangladesh under threatening monsoon skies, the 75-year-old was first in line to collect a tear-resistant tarpaulin – a vital first step to putting her life back together at this fast-growing refugee camp.
“With these harsh weather conditions, the idea is that we will be able to provide them, on arrival, at least with something to cover their heads,” said Felipe Camargo, who is leading UNHCR’s emergency response in Bangladesh.
There are an estimated 501,000 women, children and men who have arrived in this South Asian country in the last month, and the number is growing by the day, Camargo said. Meanwhile, Camargo has instructed UNHCR field workers to hand out two or three tarps at a time to individuals. “There is a very strong community solidarity mechanism – so this is a way to ensure that as many people as possible receive what is needed,” he said, adding: “If the plastic is not used for the roof, it will be used for the floor.” “This will spare us from the rain.”
As the tarp distribution picks up pace, the 2,000-acre (809 hectare) Extension Site on the outskirts of Kutupalong Camp is already becoming more organized. To make it easier to bring aid into Kutupalong Extension Site , the Bangladeshi Army started constructing a road this week. The UN Refugee Agency is also urgently shipping in 23 vehicles to assist in aid efforts led by Bangladeshi authorities, including 10 pick-up trucks that will be donated to the government.
The near daily torrential downpours send streams rushing through areas where tens of thousands openly defecate every day. For some, this murky runoff is their only source of drinking water.
A stench of excreta hangs in the air on the outskirts of Kutupalong, a camp that already housed tens of thousands of refugees before the latest influx saw it mushroom into a fetid tent city stretching for miles.
At a field clinic, a long queue of refugees waiting to see the only doctor available stretched beyond the tent into the pouring rain.
Dr Alamul Haque sees upwards of 400 patients a day and looked exhausted as he described the spiralling number of children presenting with water-borne illnesses.