Mercy Relief Singapore members join team delivering aid to Bangladesh flood victims

SINGAPORE – Humanitarian organisation Mercy Relief Singapore has joined a team in Bangladesh to help deliver aid to 18,000 flood victims.

Mr Muhammad Ashik, Mercy Relief’s executive director, and Mr Lecarl Lim from its international programmes department arrived at the south-eastern Noakhali district on Sept 9.

There, they have been working with a 14-strong team from their ground partner, Heed Bangladesh, to distribute emergency food and sanitation packs, including water purification tablets, to 3,000 households hit by floods.

Eleven districts in north-eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh have been severely affected by massive flash floods since Aug 22, Mercy Relief Singapore said in a statement on Sept 13. More than 5.2 million people are estimated to have been affected.

At least six people, including three Rohingya refugees, died and several others were injured on Sept 13 after heavy rain triggered landslides in the border district of Cox’s Bazar in south-eastern Bangladesh.

Mercy Relief Singapore noted that rapid needs assessment by Oxfam on Sept 9 indicated that 90 per cent to 95 per cent of rural homes in two of the most heavily affected districts – Noakhali and Feni – continue to be submerged even in the fourth week of the floods.

Poor drainage and continued monsoon rain in Bangladesh have caused flood waters to recede very slowly, said Mercy Relief Singapore. This has disrupted water and sanitation infrastructure, and destroyed the livelihoods of rural communities.

“Initial food, water, sanitation and hygiene-based relief remain an urgent priority to help communities meet their basic essential needs as they embark on a slow and difficult recovery period,” the organisation said.

“The floods have exacerbated the spread of water- and vector-borne diseases and affected populations in these areas.”

It added that follow-up support in livelihood recovery, repair of shelters, wells and sanitation facilities, and the delivery of medical treatment are needed.

Mercy Relief Singapore was involved in aid missions to Pakistan in September 2022 to help flood victims, and delivered food packages and hygiene kits to Palestinian refugees in Gaza in March.

It is now appealing for urgent support from corporate and public donors to raise funds to continue to help flood victims and families in Bangladesh.

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