Salma Akter Surma (ELP 2022) | Lecturer, Architecture Department, Premier University, Chittagong, Bangladesh

I am a social safeguard architect and applied researcher. My operational parameters have been  aligned with the cities and communities’ sustainability through ‘community driven development’  approaches. My research primarily concerns marginalized people and migrants, based on  collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and community-oriented strategies. I researched the way of  marginalized life in their housing with limited infrastructure. I have witnessed marginalized people being confronted with multidimensional vulnerabilities in their regular life, which was exacerbated during COVID-19 and monsoon rain. 

The COVID-19 pandemic is a stripping natural threat to humankind. Compared to similar past  pandemics, which had geographical boundaries to transmission, COVID-19 has triggered  extraordinarily unwarranted situations (Nahiduzzaman & Lai, 2020). Marginalized and displaced  (refugees) populations, particularly in low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), were confronted  with multifaceted vulnerabilities during COVID-19, where LMICs host about 85% of global 79.5  million forcibly displaced people (UNHCR, 2019a). In general, the refugees in LMICs are  experiencing a precarious living atmosphere exacerbated by limited infrastructure and services  (e.g., little water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities), poor nutrition, and health disaster. I  witnessed this scenario among the world's most vulnerable refugees, Rohingya refugees.  

Rohingya refugees, officially called forcibly displaced Myanmar nationalities (FDMN), have been residing in Cox’s bazar, Bangladesh since 2017.  Currently, the country has hosted more than one million Rohingya refugees, amongst them 700,000 fled or were driven out of the Rakhine state since 2017, resulting in brutal persecution, assaults, and killings by the Myanmar Military. More than 1 million Rohingya refugees are housed in the  'Kutupalong camp,' which is recognized as the "Kutupalong-Balukhali Expansion Site" (KBES) in  Cox's Bazar. The KBES represents the world's largest "mega-camp," includes 23 camps, and  accommodates more than 600,000 refugees. To accommodate themselves in the hilly Cox’s Bazar area, Rohingyas and humanitarian aiders both practiced hill cutting methods which causes serious soil erosion and significant risk of landslides, especially in the rainy season, including the much-dreaded monsoon. The loss of such low-growing shrubs and grasses – which  previously served to protect waterways, reduce surface heat, slow rainwater runoff, and tie loose  soils – are no longer present in camps' immediate territories, especially the Kutupalong camp area.  Moreover, deforestation contributes to higher temperatures; lower humidity of air has affected the  rainfalls in the country within the camp and made them ever vulnerable during monsoon-rain and  worsened during COVID-19. 

During COVID-19, my team surveyed the Rohingyas camp to explore how the Rohingyan people deal with COVID-19 with the pschyo-physical vulnerabilities present in their camps. We conducted surveys from May-December 2020 in-person, keeping a 2 m physical distance and considering COVID-19 restrictions and depending on the  respondents' preference and access to technology to collect data. We witnessed how Rohingyas  face the environmental vulnerabilities jeopardized by their regular insufficiencies (e.g., education,  WASH, nutrition).

Figure1: 2) Shelter vulnerabilities of Rohingya refugees camp during monsoon; b) Crammed living  in the Camp; c) Hill based shelter with unsustainable conditions. 

Increases in shelter and infrastructure damages: The Causes behind the story Due to congestion, site typography, and temporary shelter structures, Rohingya households are  extremely exposed to extreme weather events such as windstorms, heavy rains, slope failure,  landslides, and flooding. The unplanned camps, their 'row house’ settings, and high ground  coverage (over 80%) produce an extremely overcrowded and unhealthy living environment  (Figure 1) with limited indoor lighting and ventilation. Typically,10-11 officially allotted persons reside in each of these tiny shelters occupying only an area, accounting for 1.6sq m/person, which  rarely meets the recommended 4.5sq.m./person by the Humanitarian Charter (Sphere, 2018).  Sleeping on plastic clothes or a mat on the floor makes them vulnerable during rainy seasons too.  For instance, between May and July 2020, many Rohingya were affected by the small weather-related  incidents like storms, heavy rainfall, and windy storms. In late July 2021, monsoon rain also killed  six Rohingya refugees and affected more than 21,000 more, even devastating Bangladesh's Cox's  Bazar region (acaps, 2020). Substandard shelters with conditions such as leaking walls and roofs,  lack of weathering, or other hazards make them vulnerable. Narrow non-paved (Kacha) lanes/streets of 1 to 1.25m wide are even more vulnerable during monsoon rains (Akter et al., 2021).  Rohingyas were more concerned about monsoon flooding and seasonal catastrophes than  Coronavirus. At the same time, weather-related damages to pedestrian infrastructure, including  pathways, bridges, and staircases, were also being reported, representing a significant safety  concern for all refugees, especially for disabled people, women, and children.

Although maintained robust connectivity with Rohingyas in aid distribution, humanitarian  agencies coordinate with others, yet discrete or segmental aids (e.g., food, testing kits, sanitation,  and water) disappear and often are incompetence and non-justified amongst Rohingyas during  COVID-19. Even the Bangladesh government's regulations have prevented using durable shelter  materials in Rohingyas' camps. Currently, only temporary shelter materials, such as tarpaulin and  bamboo, are permitted, which rarely can address small-scale weather events. Furthermore, site  development partners can rarely complete their pre-monsoon infrastructure reinforcement work  during COVID-19 due to a lack of data on yearly/ regional rainfall data considered a "Normal"  amount of rainfall for the region. However, the title 'normal' does not indicate the intensity of the  rainfall. There is a chance of intense rainfall over a short period which may still threaten  Rohingyas' life. During the monsoon, Rohingyas, especially older people, people with disabilities,  chronic illness, pregnant women, and children, face tremendous obstacles to living in shelters. 

To mitigate these vulnerabilities, humanitarian workers can go through the following steps with  collaboration. 

• Pre-monsoon training and collaboration with site safety divisions and Rohingyas must be upheld. 

• During any unwanted vulnerabilities like COVID-19, humanitarian workers must  distribute technical assistance and installation support before the Monsoon rain. 

• Only technical installation or shelter knotting materials cannot keep the shelter will. At the  same time, the heavy rain and unstable soil impact the installation and longevity of  important structural parts of the shelter. Hence a substantial structural upgrade would help  shelters withstand poor weather conditions. 

• Humanitarian workers also need to apply and install long-lasting building materials steel  footings instead bamboo columns which can protect the shelter from destroyed 

• Awareness and preparedness messaging on how to "prepare your shelter for bad weather"  and the program must launch before weather vulnerabilities, even if it should not stop during  unwanted disasters like COVID-19. 

The study investigated the baseline capacity of Rohingya camps to identify the limitations and  challenges of building community resilience during COVID-19. Findings revealed that Rohingyas  faced extreme shelter vulnerabilities while they had indigenous resilient capacities. To develop the  resilience capacity of refugee camps, the Government and humanitarian agencies should work on  a long-term basis while appreciating the role of community leaders as a negotiated attribute in to  fight against COVID-19. 

The study is a part of the following research. 

Investigating the resilience of refugee camps to COVID-19: A case of Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh  - ScienceDirect

Reference: 

Akter, S., Dhar, T. K., Rahman, A. I. A., & Uddin, M. K. (2021). Investigating the resilience of refugee  camps to COVID-19: A case of Rohingya settlements in Bangladesh. Journal of  MigrationHealth, 4, 100052.  

Nahiduzzaman, K. M., & Lai, S.-K. (2020). What does the global pandemic COVID-19 teach us? Some  reflections. Journal of Urban Management. 

UNHCR. (2019a). Retrieved June 2019 https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html. Acaps, 2020. Impact of the monsoon & COVID-19 containment measures: Shelter and infrastructure  damage in the Rohingya refugee camps | Flash report – 20 August 2020 - Bangladesh | ReliefWeb