OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS RESIDENT COORDINATOR
IN BANGLADESH
The United Nations Disaster Management
Team (UNDMT) in Bangladesh met this morning (04 October 2000) to review
the current flood situation in the South-Western region of the country.
The team, comprising all UN agencies with a field presence in Bangladesh,
was deeply concerned by the many reports from the affected areas, confirming
that the current floods have made tens of thousands of families homeless,
exposed them to water-borne diseases, and caused severe losses of livestock
and property. Field staff from the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United
Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) are already active in the affected districts
and are reporting back daily to their offices in Dhaka. The UNDMT
agreed to strengthen its monitoring/assessment by dispatching additional
teams to the affected areas. Their findings will be reported back and discussed
at the next meeting of the UNDMT which has been scheduled for Monday, 9
October 2000.
The UN field mission will assess the needs for assistance particularly by supporting the logistics needed and by providing special emergency supplies such as high protein biscuits, water purifying tablets, food for children, bleaching powder, antidote for snake-bites and anti-tetanus vaccine.
GPO Box 224, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh - Tel: (880-2) 8118600-6, Fax: (880-2) 8113196, E-mail: rc.bd@undp.org, Internet: www.un-bd.org