Page 10 - ARUBA TODAY

A10 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 18 July 2018

Nowhere to run: Rohingya hunker down as monsoon arrives

By KRISTEN GELINEAU Children are receiving
Associated Press identity bracelets in case
UKHIYA, Bangladesh (AP) they are separated from
— The hill on which the parents in the flooding.
young woman's shelter is Families have received ex-
being built is so unstable tra materials to fortify their
that the earth crumbles shelters. Trenches have
under your feet. The threat been dug to try and redi-
of landslides is so dire that rect floodwaters.
her neighbors have evacu- Ultimately, though, the to-
ated. Though living here pography of the camps is
could spell doom as the the biggest problem. The
monsoon rains fall, she will trees that once covered
live here anyway. the hills have been cut
For Mustawkima, a Ro- down to make room for
hingya woman who fled shelters, and the roots dug
Myanmar for the refugee up for firewood. That pro-
camps of neighboring Ban- cess has dramatically loos-
gladesh, there is no other ened the soil, which the
option. rains turn into heavy mud
Hers is a dilemma repeated that slips down the hillsides,
over and over for many of burying anything in its path.
the 900,000 Rohingya refu- In this June 27, 2018, photo, a man covers his shelter with waterproof tarp as he prepares for the The jagged scar on Mo-
gees living in ramshackle monsoon season in Chakmarkul refugee camp, Bangladesh. hamed Alom's head is a
huts across this unsteady Associated Press grim reminder of the dan-
landscape: With the long- gers of those landslides. The
dreaded monsoon season Her husband was killed money to buy extra bam- an for Save the Children. 27-year-old was asleep in
now upon them, they have when the military stormed boo. "I've been here for seven his shelter last month when
run out of places to run. their village in August 2017. Families living in five shelters months and I was appalled a torrent of mud crashed
For months, officials raced Mustawkima, who like on the hill recently evacu- at how quickly things start- through the plastic wall
to relocate the most at- some Rohingya uses only ated, she says. She can ed to fall apart." next to him. A tree root
risk families to safer areas one name, abandoned only hope that her relatives The ferocity of the rains and slammed into his head, slic-
that had been bulldozed her first shelter when the will protect her and her the swiftness with which ing open his skin. His ago-
flat, but there simply isn't soil washed away. With five children when the worst of they can wreak havoc is nized screams awakened
enough available land. children under the age of 8, the rains arrive. stunning. On a recent day, his wife and two young chil-
Most refugees believe it is she wanted her new home The most intense rains are it took just minutes for a dren, who rushed him to a
too dangerous to return to be close to relatives liv- expected over the next downpour to transform the doctor.
to Myanmar, where the ing at the base of the hill, few months, though heavy face of another hill into a Now, he and his family are
military launched a bru- so she erected a flimsy tarp downpours began pum- waterfall, with torrents of among 13 people living in
tal campaign of violence halfway up. But when the meling the camps in June. muddy water cascading a one-room schoolhouse.
against the minority Ro- rains began in June, the There have already been down dirt steps. Alom is hoping officials will
hingya Muslims last year. water quickly poured in, more than 160 landslides, Beyond the landslides and help him build a new shel-
And so, as the rains begin transforming her dirt floor 30 people injured and one flooding, there are wor- ter, but he has no idea how
to flood parts of the camps, into a muddy mess. toddler killed, according to ries about waterborne dis- long that will take.
many Rohingya find them- Frightened, she sold off the Inter Sector Coordina- eases like cholera. Some of More than 200,000 people
selves trapped — by geog- some of her donated ra- tion Group, or ISCG, which the latrines are piled high are living in areas consid-
raphy, by poverty and by tions of rice, lentils and oil oversees the aid agencies with fly-riddled excrement, ered at risk of landslides
fear. so she could hire men to in the camps. which seeps out the sides and flooding, according
The bamboo shelter on build her a sturdier shelter "Within 24 hours of the first during downpours. Water to the ISCG. Around 34,000
the crumbling hillside will in the same spot. The bam- rains falling, we were see- pumps are generally just a refugees have been relo-
be Mustawkima's third at- boo and sandbags were ing small landslides and few meters away — worse, cated to other areas, with
tempt at finding a home in donated by aid agencies. we were seeing flooding some are located downhill. some moving into sturdier
the camps. She has had to She fears there isn't enough everywhere," says Daph- Aid workers have cleaned shelters further away from
do everything on her own; material, but she has no nee Cook, a spokeswom- out thousands of latrines. the hills.q