World Bank approves $165 mn grant to help Rohingyas

The World Bank has approved a $165 million grant to help Bangladesh provide basic services and build disaster and social resilience for the Rohingyas who fled violence in Myanmar and took shelter in Bangladesh, reports UNB.

This is the third in a series of planned financings of approximately half a billion dollars announced by the World Bank in June 2018.

Earlier the World Bank had committed a $75 million grant to provide for healthcare and educational needs of the Rohingyas.

“Bangladesh has shown great generosity by sheltering and providing for a nearly a million Rohingya people, despite its own development challenges,” said Dandan Chen, World Bank Acting Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan.

The Emergency Multi-Sector Rohingya Crisis Response Project will help Bangladesh cope with the world’s fastest growing exodus, where the Rohingya outnumber the local community more than threefold in the Teknaf and Ukhia upazilas, said the WB on Saturday.

The project will help build and rehabilitate basic infrastructure, improve community resilience and help prevent gender-based violence.

This includes building a water supply system comprising of community standpoints, rainwater harvesting, and piped water supply systems as well as improve sanitation facilities.

The project will also build and improve multipurpose cyclone shelters, roads, footpaths, drains, culverts, bridges and install solar street lights inside the camps.

The Rohingyas are living in extremely congested conditions in Cox Bazar, an area that is prone to weather shocks.

The project will respond to natural disaster shocks and gender-based violence through strengthened government systems and its service deliveries will focus on women and children.

Water and sanitation facilities will target women, children and disabled individuals and the street lights will contribute to better safety.

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