Waste Cleaning Campaign in the Rohingya Camp
Nowadays, human waste is a matter of concern in Rohingya camps in Bangladesh. According to research, the Rohingya refugees produces 10,000 tons of waste per month. ADRA Bangladesh with the collaboration of WASH partners in camp 21, Nayapara RC, Camp 26 and Camp 27 organized a regular monthly cleaning campaign as a part of their Site Management responsibilities. According to the community people, it is considered as one of the important events of ADRA Bangladesh in the abovementioned camps. All the Safety unit volunteers (SUV), Site Management Support (SMS) volunteers of ADRA Bangladesh, volunteers of all actors, Mazhis, leaders of the community, religious leader (Imam) along with Wash Partners and community people engaged in cleaning activities in different blocks.
All the groups involved in the campaign were coordinated by ADRA Bangladesh. The group started the cleaning equipped with spade, rake, broom, basket, bleaching, and started the cleanliness drive across all blocks under of the camps at the same time with guidance provided them before. The community people from the blocks and surrounding areas spontaneously joined with groups and helped them gathering more than a hundred kilograms of waste materials at the designed dumping points. A group was also designated to clean up drainages of all block of the camp.
The event was a resounding success in terms of mobilizing the communities to fight against littering and proper ways of disposing of the waste. The volunteers themselves got the message internalized, and they are surely going to take the message of anti-littering to their respective dwelling place and keep them clean. The Community people and the host community have now started to comprehend that it is a collective responsibility to keep the surrounding clean to ensure a healthy living. By making a clean environment, their life will be almost free from the disease which thrives in a dirty environment. The campaign also cemented working relationships between the ADRA Bangladesh, Wash partners and camp-in-charge to cooperate and pooling their resources and efforts together to successfully implement the campaign.
According to ADRA Bangladesh, clean-up activities will be intensified in the upcoming month and everyone in the camp should play a part in order to keep the environment safe, clean and healthy. Finally, ADRA Bangladesh would like to thank all WASH actors, Safety unit volunteers (SUV) and Site Management Support (SMS) volunteers and community people for their corporation.
