This publication looks beyond the infrastructure in Cox’s Bazar, particularly in Rohingya camps, that has been built over nearly a decade and asks a critical question: what will it take to keep these systems functioning safely and sustainably?
It combines technical evidence with four human stories, showing how WASH is experienced through everyday realities—safe water, sanitation, dignity, public health and resilience. It also highlights the growing risks created by ageing infrastructure, climate pressures, operational challenges and shrinking funding. We would strongly encourage colleagues working on WASH, humanitarian financing, resilience, climate, public health, advocacy and fundraising to read and use the publication, particularly the human stories and evidence for advocacy and engagement.
Since the large-scale influx in 2017, Bangladesh and the international community have sustained an extraordinary humanitarian response for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Nearly a decade later, the challenge is shifting from emergency delivery to sustaining critical systems, protecting hard-won gains and building more resilient pathways for the future.
In Cox’s Bazar, WASH is experienced through ordinary routines: the time a tap opens, the condition of a path after rain, the lock on a latrine door, the availability of soap, the arrival of a waste collector, and the speed with which a complaint is resolved. These routines are easy to overlook when the response is described mainly through asset counts. Yet they are where public-health protection, dignity and trust are won or lost.