The European Union has allocated €300,000 to help the people who have been forced to flee their homes in Bangladesh’s southeast in reaction to the floods that occurred earlier this month. The Bandarban region, one of the hardest-hit districts, will get the most of the relief.
The money will be used to provide clients with emergency monetary assistance so they may meet their immediate requirements, mostly for food and shelter. The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) will oversee the funds and coordinate operations in the region with the Bangladesh Red Cross to provide the broadest coverage feasible.
The southeast of Bangladesh has seen flash floods and landslides since August 5; Bandarban, where 80% of the municipal territory was inundated, was particularly hard hit. The floods have had a significant impact on food security, resulting in extensive damage to food stores and crops, the mortality of cattle, and the loss of feed for livestock. In the most hit places, individual shelters have also sustained significant harm. There have likely been major damages to 15,600 dwellings in Barbadan alone.
This new funding comes in addition to the over €30 million provided by the EU this year in humanitarian aid to Bangladesh, notably in response to the Rohingya refugee crisis, but also to reduce the impact of natural hazards. In May, after the devastating Cyclone Mocha hit the coastline of Bangladesh, the EU responded through the IFRC Pilot Programmatic Partnership with €305,000 for immediate assistance to affected people, both in the refugee camps and among the host population.
For both Cyclone Mocha and the recent floods, the EU’s department for civil protection and humanitarian aid operations (DG ECHO) activated an Anticipatory Action project through WFP, allowing 5,300 households in Teknaf district to have access to multi-purpose cash transfer ahead of the two disasters.
