Monsoon could block Rohingya aid

British aid workers fear they may be cut off from supporting hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees once the monsoon season hits Bangladesh after a few hours of rain “completely transformed” parts of the camps.

The first downpour descended on the cramped settlement in Cox’s Bazar last week. Two thunderstorms and strong winds have battered nearby areas over the past four days.

Those on the ground fear landslides and flooding will cause loss of life, destroy the bamboo-and-plastic shacks, block access roads and potentially turn the area into a breeding ground for contagious disease.

Kenny Hamilton, who is leading a project for the British Red Cross (BRC) on mass sanitation in the camps, said there was a “growing anxiety” about how much danger the monsoon storms could bring to the stranded population.

The 54-year-old from Glasgow said: “We saw last week a couple of hours’ rain completely transformed the camp. Generally the environment is very dry and very dusty and when the rains hit the dust on top of the ground it went very quickly to quite slick mud.”