ADB provides $41.4 million grant to help Rohingyas in Bangladesh
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved a $41.4 million grant to help improve infrastructure and manage the basic needs of Rohingyas, who were forcibly displaced from Myanmar and took shelter in Bangladesh.
With the grant, 200 water and sanitation facilities and three solid waste management facilities will be built and a piped water supply system will be established at Ukhiya of Cox's Bazar, the ADB said in a press release.
It will, among others, upgrade four health care facilities for severe acute respiratory infection, expand six primary health care and diagnostic centres in Teknaf and improve skills of healthcare workers in the district.
To strengthen disaster resilience and help protect displaced persons, six school-cum-cyclone shelters in local primary schools and one multipurpose cyclone shelter, which will also function as a Covid-19 isolation centre, will also be constructed.
Bedsides, about 13 kilometres of rural access roads leading to the camp facilities will be upgraded.
The new assistance will strengthen the resilience against Covid-19 and any future pandemic by expanding health facilities and improving water supply and sanitation, said ADB Country Director for Bangladesh Edimon Ginting.
"Disaster shelter centres, health facilities, improved water supply and sanitation, and better waste management that will be provided with ADB assistance, will reduce disaster risks and serve basic human needs of the camp population until their repatriation."
This grant is the second phase of the ADB's ongoing Emergency Assistance Project, a $100 million grant approved in 2018, according to the ADB.
In addition to the new grant assistance, the ADB today approved a $30 million concessional loan to rehabilitate a 30.76 km section of the National Highway-1 to improve the transportation of relief and essential goods between Teknaf and Cox's Bazar.
The improved road will facilitate economic activities and income generation in the region, benefiting both the displaced persons from Myanmar sheltered in the camps and the host community, the ADB said.