What happened?

What happened?
In 2007, more than half of Bangladesh was seriously affected by monsoon flooding. Caused by excessive rainfall in catchment areas of Nepal, Bhutan and Northern Indian, floods in July and September affected 13.3 million people – 6 million of them children – in 46 districts.

The floods caused:
1,100 deaths (90 per cent of them children)
400,000 displaced people
1.1 million damaged or destroyed homes
162,000 cases of diarrhoea
2.2 million acres of damaged cropland
Many farmers lost their crops twice and were unable to replant.

UNICEF’s response
To restore access to safe water, UNICEF supported the construction of 853 new tubewells, the repair of 91,300 damaged wells, and distribution of over 4.3 million water purification tablets.

UNICEF also provided
Plastic sheets and family kits – containing clothes, cooking utensils and basic household items – for 98,000 families
Food supplements for 162,000 people
Essential drugs for 250,000 people
During the floods UNICEF set up safe spaces that provided care and psychosocial support to 40,000 children. These children were able to continue their studies thanks to UNICEF’s emergency education kits.