UNICEF finds 2m children at risk from floods

Staff Reporter :

UNICEF has issued a stark warning that over two million children in eastern Bangladesh are at grave risk as severe floods ravage homes, schools, and villages. These floods, the worst in the region in 34 years, have affected a total of 5.6 million people.

Unprecedented monsoon rains have caused major rivers in the southeast to overflow, resulting in the deaths of more than 50 people. In response, UNICEF urgently needs $35.3 million for critical, life-saving interventions, targeting children as well as pregnant and lactating women.

Over 500,000 people have been forced to seek shelter after rising waters submerged homes, streets, and fields in Chattogram and Sylhet Divisions. Millions of children and families are stranded without access to food or emergency relief supplies. Government personnel and volunteers are conducting rescue operations, but access remains challenging in many areas, and the situation is expected to worsen as the monsoon season continues.

“The devastating floods in eastern Bangladesh are a tragic reminder of the relentless impact of extreme weather events and the climate crisis on children. Far too many children have lost loved ones, their homes, and schools, leaving them destitute,” said Emma Brigham, Deputy Representative of UNICEF Bangladesh.

“UNICEF is on the frontlines providing water purification tablets, oral rehydration salts, and other essential supplies, but more funds are urgently needed to reach these children and prevent even more devastating impacts on their futures.”

Since the onset of the disaster, UNICEF has been actively involved on the ground. Collaborating with the Advisor to the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, Hasan Arif, and other partners, UNICEF has reached over 338,000 people, including 130,000 children, with life-saving supplies such as 3.6 million water purification tablets, 25,000 jerry cans for water storage, and over 250,000 sachets of oral rehydration salts.

However, the need is still vast. People, especially children, urgently require cash assistance, safe drinking water, hygiene kits, emergency latrines, sanitary pads, oral rehydration salts, and essential medicines. Primary healthcare services to treat sick newborns and children and to assist pregnant women in childbirth must be restored immediately.

These recent floods follow closely on the heels of floods in northern Bangladesh and Cyclone Remal in May. Combined, these three emergencies have affected over 13 million people across Bangladesh, including 5 million children.

The increasing frequency, severity, and unpredictability of cyclones, floods, and other extreme weather events in Bangladesh underscore that the climate crisis is fundamentally a child rights crisis. According to UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, children in Bangladesh are the most exposed in the world to climate and environmental hazards.