UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- With the wet season approaching in Bangladesh, United Nations relief agencies are preparing to strengthen vital infrastructure and boost resilience among Rohingya refugees living in shelters as well as local communities hosting them.

Assessments by the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) and partners indicate that at least 100,000 refugees and vulnerable families in the local community in Cox's Bazar - one of the world's biggest refugee settlements - face life-threatening risks from landslides and floods, and thousands more are at risk of diseases and being cut off from assistance.

"With emergency situations inevitable when the rains hit, it is crucial we work together now to limit disaster as much as possible before it occurs," Manuel Marques Pereira, the IOM Emergency Coordinator in Cox's Bazar, said in a news release on Tuesday.

Preparation efforts include providing search and rescue training, setting up emergency medical centers, establishing bases for work crews and light machinery, and upgrading shelters to mitigate disasters.

Work is also ongoing to improve roads and drainage, stabilize slopes to prevent landslides and erosion and setting up early warning systems, IOM said.

"It is vitally important to support members of the refugee and local communities with training and information in advance, so they are ready to respond and protect themselves and others when the worst conditions arrive," added Marques Pereira.

But given the scale of the challenges, including the sheer size of the refugee population, limited suitable land, and harsh environmental conditions, it will be impossible to move everyone at risk, and therefore rapid emergency response action will be critical to save lives.

To improve response, an emergency drill is being conducted to develop rapid and coordinated operations, which is being attended by IOM, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), humanitarian partners and Government agencies.

Since late August 2017, some 700,000 members of Myanmar's minority Muslim Rohingya community have been driven from their homes due to widespread violence in Myanmar's Rakhine province, joining some 200,000 Rohingya refugees displaced earlier.

Together with local host communities, the number of persons in need of humanitarian assistance in the region is estimated to number over a million. Enditem

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