The Impact of Continuous Rainfall on the Rohingya Refugee Camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

Authored by Aziz Khan & Abdur Rahman

•⁠ ⁠Introduction

Rohingya are one of the most persecuted minorities in the world who have been living in Refugee camps in Bangladesh for nearly a decade. The Rohingya live in small fragile shelters made of tarpaulin and bamboo, the size of which mostly are 12 feet in length and 10 feet in width, providing a little protection to them from sunlight and heavy rainfall. As the monsoon arrives, the heavy rainfall, together with wind blowing and landslides continues to grow, causing destruction across the camps.
The first week of July 2025 is one of the periods of excessive rainfall that caused floods, landslides and collapses of the shelters and learning centers in most camps, worsening the situations for the vulnerable Rohingya refugees.

•⁠ ⁠Purpose of the Report

This report aims to explore how the continuous heavy rainfall, floods and landslides affected the refugee’s lives, damaging shelters, restricting healthcare facilities, and forcing them to move from their shelters to safe places. The data of this report was gathered to enrich the report through interviews, direct observations, and secondary sources such as NGOs’ reports and published articles.

•⁠ ⁠Current Living Conditions

The continuous violent rainfall has partially or completely affected all the refugees while the floods and landslides affected many families, without letting the survivors ignite fire on the stoves and sleep at their own shelter due to complete or partial damages of the shelters. Some shelters even collapsed due to landslides and heavy rainfall and according to observations, more than 65% of the shelters across the camps flooded even with a little rainwater on the floor or at least they found their sleeping floor wet like a wet muddy floor due to excessive rainfall. As a result, this made the situation worse, causing crowding and drainage issues. In the first week of last month June 4 2025, approximately 1,900 shelters have been destroyed due to heavy rainfall and strong winds according to IOM.

•⁠ ⁠Personal Experiences

Many Rohingya refugees shared emotional and personal experiences of fear and helplessness caused by the extreme weather. Toyoba Khatu, an elderly Rohingya woman living with her husband and two sons, stated that a landslide beside their shelter caused damages to surrounding shelters and blocked a nearby path, and left them in a terrified situation in fear of further destruction. “We have not received any humanitarian support to repair it.” According to UNHCR in Bangladesh, over 2,930 people have been affected due to continuous rainfall and over 435 shelters were partly damaged.

•⁠ ⁠Health and Sanitation Challenges

The continuous heavy rainfall, along with mild winding inside the Rohingya camps has severely affected the Rohingya, leading to waterlogging and causing water pollution in all camps. It has increased the risks of waterborne diseases such as Cholera, Diarrhea, skin infections, dengue, typhoid and hepatitis A. The damaged latrines affected by flood and landslides created sanitation problems as well as the increases of infection risk. Due to limited access to clean water, the health condition continues to worsen the refugees’ lives day by day, causing them to face challenges because of excessive floods and mud.

•⁠ ⁠Its Damages inside the Camps

Continuous heavy rainfall has damaged over 600 latrines, along with 47 water–supply points affected, causing families to rely on unsafe sources. Besides, around 50 landslides, as well as floods in open areas across the camps have restricted movements from one place to another, especially for the elderly, the children, the disabled and the pregnant women. The reports indicate that approximately 14,00 shelters were damaged, killing one refugee with 11 injured. Moreover, this continuous rainfall has caused learning centers and shelters built on hilltop and near the drains to collapse either completely or partially. In those shelters unaffected by floods and landslides are also suffering either from damaged roofs and entering water from the bottom or around the corner side.

•⁠ ⁠Response from the Camp Authorities and NGOs

The continuous rainfall has been impacting the refugees severely, leading the flood and landslides–affected families to seek temporary refuge in learning centers for a short period until the weather subsides. The flooded, muddy and partially damaged paths have caused difficulties for the families to get access to facilities and healthcare. The NGO emergency teams assisted the affected families with relocation to a safe place, shelters repairs and temporary hosting in learning centers or facilities. The responsible teams started assisting and repairing the damaged roads and paths, affected water–supply points and overflowed latrines.

•⁠ ⁠Conclusion and Recommendations

In conclusion, this report examines how heavy rainfall destroyed mass shelters, increased health risks, put restrictions on movement and forced survivors to relocate temporarily to safe places. It calls for immediate support to repair damaged shelters, distribution of emergency clothes and a safer place for the affected and vulnerable families. It also focuses on the long-term recommendations like improving systems to reinforce house constructions, strengthening health services during monsoon and community based disasters preparedness training for the Rohingya. It is a call to international bodies, camp authorities and NGOs to increase coordination to develop resilience in future.

Photos by Rafiq Jahan, Hamid MC and other photographers whose names are not available.

References:
1.⁠ ⁠“IOM Leads Relief Efforts as Monsoon Rains Damage Nearly 2,000 Shelters in Rohingya Camps.” Published by International Organization for Migration (IOM), on 4 June 2025. https://www.iom.int/news/iom-leads-relief-efforts-monsoon-rains-damage-nearly-2000-shelters-rohingya-camps. Accessed on 7 July 2025.

2.⁠ ⁠UNHCR in Bangladesh. “Relentless monsoon rains are battering the #Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar Bangladesh.” Facebook, 3 July 2025.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16phheZUpR/. Accessed on 7 July 2025.bbg

3.⁠ ⁠United Nations Bangladesh “Heavy monsoon rains highlight once again the critical needs of Rohingya refugees”
https://bangladesh.un.org/en/295589-heavy-monsoon-rains-highlight-once-again-critical-needs-rohingya-refugees?utm_source=chatgpt.com