Corporate Social Responsibility RedR Australia
HAND IN HAND:
ADDRESSING INCREASED AND EVOLVING HUMANITARIAN NEED REDR AUSTRALIA IS LOOKING TO ITS CONSULTING ENGINEERING ROOTS TO ENSURE SUSTAINABLE AND LASTING IMPACT FOR COMMUNITIES GLOBALLY.
Engineers and RedR Australia roster members Paul and Camilla were deployed to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Bangladesh to support the Rohingya refugee crisis.
When GHD civil engineer Camilla arrived in Bangladesh in 2018, the fast approaching dry season meant the Rohingya population living in Cox’s Bazar were facing five months of limited water supply. Deployed through humanitarian response agency RedR Australia as a Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Expert to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Camilla’s work focused on potential water sources and storage locations – including the design of a reservoir to service the refugees in Teknaf, the southern district of Cox’s Bazar. Camilla’s deployment formed part of RedR Australia’s ongoing support to the Rohingya crisis, with the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar now home to around 850,000 people who fled systemic genocide, rape and torture in northern Myanmar in late 2017. Since 2017, through Australia Assists – the Australian Government’s humanitarian civilian deployment program implemented by RedR Australia – more than 70 technical specialists have deployed to United Nations agencies in Bangladesh to support the response to the refugee crisis – representing RedR Australia’s largest single response to a humanitarian emergency in almost thirty years of operation. 34 Consulting Matters
RedR Australia roster members continue to work on the ground in Cox’s Bazar today. With Camilla’s work helping to provide up to 20,000 people with 20 litres of water per person per day, her deployment is just one example of the impact that engineers are having in humanitarian response around the world. RedR Australia and the consulting engineering sector have a long history of collaboration both in Australia and abroad. Originally known as Registered Engineers for Disaster Relief, RedR Australia was established in 1992 by engineer Jeff Dobel, who called on his peers to apply their skills to disaster relief. Consult Australia and Engineers Australia are founding bodies, supporting RedR Australia to this day. From our work helping communities to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, we know that engineering is key to humanitarian action. We know the resilience communities derive from their infrastructure and how it keeps them physically and socially connected to support, trade and livelihoods. Infrastructure also enables people to keep in touch with loved ones, and access lifesaving and essential supplies and services before, during and after a disaster.
