Bangladesh — Household’s Perception and Use Of 150 Sq. Feet Shelters (Built for The Fire Response in Camps 9, 8e And 8w) Survey Analysis: October, 2022

In response to shelter reconstruction after the March 22nd fire in 2021, MoDMR shared an “Approval of design for construction of shelters in Rohingya camps” on April 4th (including single storey shelters and specification of the materials to be used) stating that a “single storey shelter of 10 feet x 15 feet size can be constructed for one household if construction of double storey shelter is not possible because of positional reason”. The RRRC issued a document entitled “Approval of basic principles for construction of shelter in FDMN camps” (15 April 2021) stating that “at the moment only one storied shelter will be constructed in the FDMN camps considering quick re-construction of shelters due to the massive fire incident and imminent monsoon”. The RRRC then requested the Shelter/NFI Sector and IOM to provide a design.

● The design of a shelter of 10 feet x 15 feet (150 sq. feet) was approved on April 25th, only for the reconstruction of shelters affected by the fire on March 21st

● In the submitted document, it was proposed that this shelter size (150 sq. feet) is for up to four family members (standard family size) and 1.5 shelters (225 sq. feet) can be provided for up to six family members and two shelter units1 (300 sq. feet) for seven or more family members to ensure dignified living conditions.

However, the RRRC subsequently communicated that the approved design of 150 sq. ft. is for the HHs with up to six family members and that the same design should be followed across all the camps, not only for shelters affected by the March fire. This design is currently the only approved one for single-storey mid-term shelters (MTS), and the RRRC no longer recognizes its previous MTS design approvals. To reinforce the advocacy with the government on dignified living conditions, there is a need for a comprehensive and independent survey across the camps to measure the perception of the new design and impact of the reduced size. This survey targeted 3 camps where MTS were built based on the approved design. All the responses are based on the HHs perception, no technical verification was included in this assessment.