• Friday, March 29, 2024

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BRITISH AID IN SOUTH ASIA helps with DISASTER RELIEF AND floods PREVENTION

HOPE: UKaid is helping families in Nepal who have lost everything; and (inset) a girl in Agartala, India is forced to wade through water to reach school

By: JurmoloyaRava

Alistair Burt

By Alistair Burt

Minister of state for international development

WE HAVE all been moved by the harrowing news over the past week of people displaced from their homes, left hungry and destitute following the monsoon rains in south Asia.

Floods have ripped through Nepal and Bangladesh and left a trail of devastation in their wake. Almost 8.6 million men, women, and children across those two countries alone have been affected, along with millions more in India.

Swathes of farmland in the two countries have been completely destroyed. It is hard to hear the many stories of how people have lost so much their homes, their livelihoods and tragically, their loved ones.

Sadly, Nepal and Bangladesh are no strangers to this kind of disaster. Bangladesh sees flooding every year and has already endured landslides triggered by heavy rains earlier this year. Nepal is just recovering from a powerful earthquake two years ago, which destroyed over half a million homes and claimed nearly 9,000 lives.

British aid is providing hope where there is darkness. The Department for International Development (DfID) is working with the governments of both countries, which are increasingly taking the lead in preparing for the impact of disasters. They are working hard to help communities better protect themselves against risks, developing early warning systems and building more resilient homes, schools, hospitals, and roads.

The UK has a close and long-standing friendship with both Nepal and Bangladesh. Britain was a leading international donor to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. We stood with Bangladesh after cyclone Mora hit caused flooding in May of this year and have been providing support to cope with heavy rains from the very start of the monsoon season, well before floods began to make the international headlines.

Britain was one of the first to respond to Nepal’s call for international assistance following the recent floods. Our personnel already on the ground have been offering advice and support to national authorities to assess damage, understand needs and to respond effectively. They will continue to offer help long after the water has receded. Similarly, in Bangladesh, we were already supporting humanitarian coordination and early warning systems.

In the Nepali capital Kathmandu, a staging area at the airport built by UK aid following the 2015 earthquake has already played a pivotal role in ensuring the arrival of relief is well coordinated and that it is released without delay to help those in affected areas.

UK emergency assistance is already helping 90,000 people affected by the floods across both countries, providing clean water and sanitation, shelter, food and other essential supplies to flood victims. The UK’s contribution of £660,000 to the flood response will help over 60,000 people with food, cash, shelter, and Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in Bangladesh. In Nepal DfID is allocating £400,000 to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Nepal Red Cross Society for monsoon flood response; 75 per cent of this support is earmarked for WASH, livelihood recovery and health. This support will provide safe water supply to over 13,000 people, ensure more than 3,000 of those most severely affected receive immediate food and financial support, and reach over 2,000 women and girls with health supplies.

The UK is also helping to prevent secondary disasters. Our humanitarian partners are working with health authorities in Nepal and Bangladesh to prevent the spread of diseases. And between emergencies, we work with agencies of government to strengthen preparedness for disaster and resilience. In the 1970s many thousand died during floods and cyclones in Bangladesh and recovery was very slow, leaving people in miserable conditions without shelter and facing food shortages for months or even years after. These days Bangladesh agencies respond much faster and more efficiently, people are moved to safety earlier, impacts are much less and recovery swifter. The UK can be proud to have been part of building that resilience.

We will continue to offer support to both Nepal and Bangladesh to meet immediate needs and to strengthen the resilience of both countries to recover and prepare for the future.

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