Jakarta: Global aid agencies are warning that nearly a million Rohingya refugees face significant health risks from flooding and water-borne diseases when the full-force of Bangladesh's monsoon rains hit over-crowded camps next month.
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The UN refugee agency has estimated there are 876,000 Rohingya refugees in the tiny Cox's Bazaar district of Bangladesh.
About 700,000 of those Rohingya people, including nearly 400,000 children, fled persecution in Myanmar and escaped to Bangladesh between August 25 and December last year. The United Nations human rights chief has suggested it was a case of genocide.
About 600,000 of the refugees live in one mega-camp, with most making do in shelters constructed from plastic sheets and bamboo and only the most basic access to food, water and sanitation.
A month from now, in June, the volume of rainfall will have risen to as much as 500mm, and it will rise again to an expected peak of nearly 600mm in July. August will bring an estimated 500mm more rain, followed by more in September.
The winds that come with the rain are expected to make short work of the refugees' flimsy shelters.
By comparison, Melbourne averages about 600mm of rain per year while in Sydney, the figure is about 1200mm, at Observatory Hill. Even tropical Darwin only gets about 1700mm a year.
Medecins Sans Frontieres Emergency Coordinator in Cox's Bazaar, Sam Turner, told Fairfax Media that 200,000 Rohingya in the distract are at direct risk of flooding, which can also cause overflowing toilets and the contamination of drinking water.
And that's when watery diarrhoea, which causes severe dehydration and can cause death, strikes.
"People simply lose fluids faster than they can be replaced. And if people can't access medical services fast enough, if we can’t contain the spread of disease, then we would have fears for a rise in deaths," Mr Turner says.
MSF now has 3000 staff on the ground, with five hospitals and 15 clinics set up to try and stop the spread of watery diarrhoea, as well as respiratory diseases and Hepatitis A and E.
Oxfam is focused on ensuring access to clean drinking water, with new deep tube wells being dug, and a particular focus on sanitation. The agency also has another key priority – helping to move 30,000 portable toilets to safer ground before the rains hit hard.
The organisation's crisis response advocacy manager, Dorothy Sang, says she has been shocked by the ferocity of the rain and the winds already and there is worse to come.
"There are nearly a million people in an area not big enough for them. It is a potential crisis within a crisis, or a disaster within a disaster," Ms Sang says.
UNICEF is particularly focused on Rohingya children – the crisis has been dubbed by some a "children's emergency" – and there are fears that when the flooding starts, children will be separated from their families.
As well vaccinating close to a million people to protect against cholera, and setting up diarrhoea treatment centres, UNICEF Australia spokesman James Nichols says 250,000 Rohingya kids had been given waterproof ID bracelets.
"Rohingya children have already suffered so much and we are doing all we can to protect them during what threatens to be a devastating and potentially deadly cyclone and monsoon season," he says.
