Dhaka: Rohingyas from Myanmar's Rakhine State continue to cross border to seek safety in Bangladesh putting the number of new arrivals at 536,000, according to latest data.

Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) released the data saying 536,000 new arrivals are reported as of October 11, said the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on Thursday night.

According to IOM Needs and Population Monitoring, UNHCR and other field reports, cross border movement of over 14,000 newly arrived refugees has been verified in the past two days.

This report is produced by ISCG in collaboration with humanitarian partners and covered October 10-11 while the next report will be issued on October 17.

Their arduous journeys from Rakhine villages to the border with Bangladesh took from 2-16 days, and that most Rohingya people were forced to pay between Tk 5,000-10,000 each to cross the NafRiver by boat, according to a UN report.

"Many without any means had to walk across to the border," said the UN report, released on Wednesday, which is based on some 65 interviews with individuals and groups.

Unicef Representative in Bangladesh Edouard Beigbeder has said, "Disease outbreak is a real and present danger for the camp dwellers and host population. We immediately need to step up sanitation coverage there."

Beigbeder said there are already reports of water-borne diseases from the health centres in the camps.

"The seriousness of the situation cannot be over-emphasised. These people are malnourished and there is insufficient access to clean water and sanitation in many of the spontaneous sites. They are highly vulnerable. They have fled conflict, experienced severe trauma and are now living in extremely difficult conditions," said IOM Bangladesh Chief of Mission Sarat Dash.

Many of the new arrivals require immediate health assistance and agencies have appealed for US$ 48 million to scale up primary health care in all the new settlements over the next six months.

"The risk of an outbreak of communicable disease is very high given the crowded living conditions and the lack of adequate clean water and sanitation. Maternal, newborn and child health care are also in desperately short supply given the very high numbers of pregnant or lactating women and children among the new arrivals," said IOM Senior Regional Health Officer Patrick Duigan.

New latrines will be constructed in the Rohingya camps and settlements in Cox's Bazar district to provide sanitation coverage to some 250,000 people, averting a major disease outbreak, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Unicef and the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief of Bangladesh agreed that the Bangladesh Armed Forces Division will construct 10,000 latrines in Cox's Bazar as quickly as possible at a total cost of $1.5 million.

The latrines, at an estimated cost of $147 each, will also be regularly disinfected through spraying chlorine solution so that these do not become sources of contamination.

Unicef, the Department of Public Health and Engineering, and water and sanitation sector partners are also implementing an accelerated programme of building latrines for the refugees in the camps in two sub-districts of Cox's Bazar district.

Earlier, Unicef and its health sector partners launched a massive oral cholera vaccination campaign for 650,000 people in Ukhia and Teknaf upazilas of Cox's Bazar - mobilising 900,000 doses of cholera vaccines to protect newly arrived Rohingyas and the host community from a cholera outbreak.

Over the past 47 days, according to the IOM-hosted Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) of aid agencies, numbers spiked again this week when some 15,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh on October 9-11.

The speed and scale of the influx has triggered a humanitarian emergency in Cox's Bazar, where close to three quarters of a million refugees now depend on humanitarian assistance for shelter, food, water, sanitation and other life-saving needs, according to an IOM document obtained by UNB on Friday night.

Prior to the August influx, Cox's Bazar was already hosting over 200,000 previously displaced Rohingya, placing the district's infrastructure and basic services under immense strain.

Earlier this week ISCG aid agencies appealed for USD 434 million as part of a 6-month Humanitarian Response Plan targeting 1.2 million people, including the Rohingya refugees and 300,000 vulnerable Bangladeshis living in host communities in Cox's Bazar.

Some 35,500 children between the age of 5-15 years have been vaccinated against measles and rubella, and over 72,000 children between the age of 0-5 have been vaccinated against polio and received Vitamin A supplementation. An oral cholera vaccination campaign targeting the entire population also began this week.

As of last week, some 288,000 people have received emergency shelter assistance and 54,000 NFI assistance since August 25. Over 17,000 households have received acute emergency kits including one tarpaulin per family of five. Over 2,500 households received have received two tarpaulins and 5,000 have received blankets and sleeping mats.

The massive increase in the number of people in multiple sites is also overwhelming existing water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) facilities. WASH sector agencies believe that some 750,000 people out of the 1.2 million people targeted by the response plan will need WASH assistance in the next six months.

Some 8,100 emergency latrines have also been built, but the fill rate currently exceeds the construction rate. This is being is compounded by the shortage of land and a lack of sewage management infrastructure. WASH agencies say that USD 74 million is needed to meet WASH needs through February 2018.

Against this backdrop, there is tremendous pressure on the existing settlements, with the population of multiple sites and settlements more than doubling since August 25.

This has resulted in a huge need site management for an estimated 700,000 people. This will cost an estimated US$ 65 million, according to ISCG site management agencies.