When Cyclone Amphanthe most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Bay of Bengalchurned into Bangladesh on May 13, it ripped apart houses and snapped power lines. Waves breached river embankments built to protect low-lying communities, and the floods that followed threatened the lives of everyone who didn’t make it to a shelter in time. Half a million people in Bangladesh may have lost their homes.
As changes in the climate warm the waters of the bay, storms here are intensifying. But this year, their impact will be magnified further and hugely complicated by the deadly coronavirus: the need for people to crowd into buildings that are safe from wind and floodwaters robs communities of a trusted tool in the fight against COVID-19social distancing.
Mostafa Nuruzzaman, the director of Oxfam partner Shushilan, knew that towns like Shyamnagar in the western district of Satkhira would be hammered by the cyclone. As Amphan swept across the water toward land, the Shushilan team there did its best to prepare for the double emergency. They cleaned and disinfected the local cyclone shelter, and readied their own training center to provide more space for people taking refuge from the storm. They ramped up their public health messaging about masks and distancing, and prepared hand sanitizer and a bar of soap for every family arriving at the shelters. Beyond that, they simply had to hope that this relatively remote townspared the comings and goings of busier hubs, and somewhat protected by weeks of lockdownwould be lucky enough to avert an outbreak of COVID-19.
As soon as the cyclone passed by and the teams were safe to move, Shushilan and Oxfam staff donned personal protection equipment and set out to determine the needs in Shyamnagar and other struggling towns in the hard-hit districts of Satkhira, Khulna, and Bagerhat, distributing emergency rations of dry food and drinking water along the way. Now, they are engaged in a responsecoordinated with the local authorities and tailored to the needs of each communitywith special attention to the people whose situations are most dire.
In response to the coronavirus crisis, Oxfam and 23 Bangladeshi partner organizations have stepped up our work on helping the poorest communities gain access to clean water and sanitation facilities, and the materials and information they need to protect their health through safe hygiene. The crowded camps for Rohingya refugees are particularly vulnerable to the spread of COVID-19; Oxfam and partners are providing water, sanitation, and hygiene support to 173,000 camp residents and 9,000 people in the surrounding communities. (The water and sanitation system we have installed includes composting toilets and latrines designed for people with disabilities, and the largest fecal sludge processing plant of any refugee camp in the world.)
With enough funding, we aim to deliver cash to 100,000 families in and around the camps, enabling many of the most vulnerable families to buy food and other essentials from local businesses that are also struggling in this crisis. In response to Cyclone Amphan, we aim to provide assistance to nearly 400,000 people in coastal districts.
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