Funding cuts heighten monsoon risks for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Funding cuts heighten monsoon risks for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Monsoon rains bring flooding to Nayapara refugee camp in Teknaf, eastern Bangladesh, in July 2021.
In the hilly terrain of Cox’s Bazar, life for over 1 million Rohingya refugees in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp is always a struggle, but monsoon season brings fresh challenges. Heavy rain makes the narrow walkways slippery and treacherous, and landslides threaten to destroy the latrines, bathing facilities and water points that refugees rely on.
Since 2020, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has run an initiative that provides refugees with small payments to repair walkways, stabilize slopes, and maintain other shared facilities in their communities. It is not just an income-generating project, but a way for refugees themselves to ensure the camp is accessible to everyone. In return, they can earn a little money to support their families and supplement their minimal rations.
But the global aid funding crisis has seen the budget for this community-led programme slashed. Where once 30 to 40 refugees contributed to and benefited from each of the hundreds of maintenance projects, there are now barely enough funds to engage seven or eight people for the handful of projects that remain.
The reduction in support for Rohingya refugees is highlighted in a new UNHCR report about the impacts of the global humanitarian funding crisis for people forced to flee. It warns that in Bangladesh, the cuts are undermining an already overstretched response where refugees remain fully dependant on aid for food, shelter, health care and education.
A vital lifeline
Jahid Alam, a 45-year-old father of two, used to buy fish and vegetables for his children with the money he earned carrying sandbags to protect walkways from landslides.
“The amount of food we get every month is limited,” he says quietly. “With the extra work, I could buy some variety for my children. Now, that is no longer possible.”
Jahid and his wife both live with a disability. Besides providing them with a way of improving their children’s diet, working on maintenance projects allowed them to stay connected with their community.
Jahid Alam stands on a bridge built by refugees as part of the community-led programme.
“[This] was never just a programme – it was a vital lifeline,” says Afruza Sultana, who works in Site Management Support for BRAC, a key partner in the refugee response in Bangladesh. “It gave them more than just a wage – it gave them purpose, dignity, and the means to feed their families and make alternative arrangements for basic needs.”
She added that cuts to the programme were having “ripple effects” on families, with children being pulled from learning centres, and parents being pushed into precarious work or even taking dangerous journeys to reach other countries.
Critical infrastructure at risk
In addition to the loss of income and hope for many refugees, cuts to the programme are having an impact on the functioning and safety of the camp, particularly during the monsoon season when the maintenance of infrastructure such as roads, bridges, paths and latrines is most critical.
In the first half of 2024, around 5,500 male and female refugees completed over 500 maintenance projects. This year, that number has dropped by nearly two-thirds, leaving the camps more vulnerable than ever. Without workers to repair and reinforce them, many walkways and roads have been eroded or washed away, drains remain blocked, and footbridges unusable.
A hillside in Kutupalong camp eroded by monsoon rains.
“These aren’t just inconveniences,” says Afruza. “They are daily hazards that threaten safety, health and mobility in the camps.”
As heavy rain pounds the hills, Jaynub Begum, 24, is worried about the lack of repairs to the slippery and uneven paths between shelters. Last year, the mother of four worked on a project to build stairs in a particularly hilly section of the camp. This year, the need for such projects is visible everywhere. “There is a latrine near our shelter at risk of landslides, and we are scared to use it now,” she says. “There is no initiative to protect it.”
Besides crumbling infrastructure, the impacts of the funding crisis are starting to be felt in many other aspects of life in the camps, even as more refugees arrive after fleeing ongoing conflict and persecution in Myanmar. In a press briefing on 11 July, UNHCR warned that more cuts are looming and, without additional funds, will disrupt health services, distributions of cooking fuel, education for children, and food assistance.
“Humanitarian funding may be shrinking, but the needs on the ground are not,” says Afruza. “We urge the global community to remember that behind every budget line are human lives, aspirations, and the fragile stability of one of the world’s most vulnerable populations.”
