Post-flood rehabilitation

We have been warning about the onset of post-flood diseases for some time now. The local administration has been responding but it appears not so fast in many areas where the receding waters have brought water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and skin-related infections. What we are seeing in some districts is that water purification tablets distributed by health officials are ineffective primarily because the medicines were date expired. Why is this happening? And why wasn't the Health Ministry not aware of this situation? Although, most affected communities have been able to find shelter and physical safety, the lack of safe drinking water could become a major health hazard in the coming weeks unless something is done fast.

Hundreds of thousands of people will require immediate access to essential drugs such as water purification tablets and survival food kits. No one wants to see the local health complexes to be overburdened with people coming in sick with stomach ailments like dysentery, diarrhoea. As we have already experienced a bad case of expired medicines in some areas of Manikganj, it falls upon the local administration and health ministry officials to act fast to rectify the situation. Once the immediate health hazards are contained, and there is no reason why we cannot handle them as emergency response is an area where Bangladesh has significant experience and expertise; it is imperative that both State and Non-State actors work with affected communities to get their life back on track.