The UN has announced an allocation of USD 5 million to support over 7.2 million people in Bangladesh who have been affected by recent floods in the North East of the country.
After a coordinated appeal by the UN country team in Bangladesh, Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator announced the funding.
The UN accept the grant for flash food relief in the country as over half of those affected need humanitarian assistance, said a UN statement on Thursday.
The funding comes from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), which aims to kick-start relief efforts in a coordinated and prioritised manner when a new crisis emerges.
The focus of the CERF rapid response request is the provision high-impact immediate life-saving assistance to those most impacted and most vulnerable households, it added.
The UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Gwyn Lewis, spoke of how sobering her recent visit to the flood affected areas had been: “The scale of the floods in the region are more dramatic than any that have been experienced in recent memory. Many families have literally lost everything they own. Many are still living in shelters: the floods waters are receding very slowly and their homes are completely destroyed. There is an urgent need to scale up our support to the Government’s emergency response.”
This brings the current funding of the Humanitarian Response Plan to USD 12 Million (112 crore), which is approximatively 20 per cent of the necessary USD 58.4 million that were identified.
The Humanitarian Response Plan prioritises life-saving assistance including emergency food security assistance water and sanitation interventions and protection interventions targeting women and girls.
The UN is supporting the Government and delivering food assistance, drinking water, cash, emergency drugs, water purification tablets, dignity and hygiene kits to the affected families and education support.