Image: WASH team leader, Amanullah. (Md. Dipu/CPI)
Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh ranks among the most crowded places on Earth. Roughly 47,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live in every square kilometer. This density strains every basic service, and sanitation in Kutupalong faces some of the hardest pressure of all. Toilets fill quickly, repairs cannot wait, and broken toilets put thousands of people at risk. To meet this challenge, Community Partners International (CPI) is helping Rohingya water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) workers produce concrete rings and slabs for toilet cesspits within the camp.
The numbers tell a stark story. More than 1.1 million Rohingya refugees now live in the camps around Cox’s Bazar and on Bhasan Char island. Since January 2025, the area has taken in at least 133,000 new arrivals, with an additional 35,000 anticipated in 2026. Each new family adds pressure to toilets, washing points, and waste systems that were already stretched thin.
As of August 2025, the camps held 51,587 toilet cubicles. If every one of them works, that gives roughly one toilet for every 23 people. However, the Sphere minimum standard in humanitarian response is one toilet for every 20 people. In other words, the camps already fall short of the agreed benchmark.
Access is also getting worse, not better. One recent study found that the number of people sharing each WASH facility rose from 25 in 2022 to 29.4 in 2025. Reliable sanitation in Kutupalong, therefore, depends on infrastructure that few outsiders ever notice.
Poor sanitation in Kutupalong does not stay contained. When toilets break, foul odors spread and flies gather. If those flies reach food, disease can follow fast. Cholera, typhoid, dysentery, and acute watery diarrhea all spread more easily where sanitation fails.
For Reasad Hossain, a WASH engineer who supervises the work, the standard is not negotiable. “Alongside food, clothing, and shelter, sanitation is a basic humanitarian need,” he says. Without it, he adds, people quickly lose their health and their ability to function.
Behind each working toilet sits a part that most people never see. Concrete rings line the cesspit and let liquid waste soak safely into the ground. According to Reasad, the rings “act as a soak well for the liquid waste,” drawing it down through the joints between each ring. A concrete slab then caps the pit and forms the floor above it. Without them, waste simply pools and odors take over.
Each twin-pit toilet needs about 20 rings, along with the slabs that cover the pits. Therefore, the camp depends on a steady, reliable supply of strong concrete. For years, that supply has come from vendors outside the camp, and that arrangement has created problems.
Procurement from outside vendors moved slowly. If a ring broke, the standard process took at least 25 to 30 days to replace it. Meanwhile, repairs stalled and communities waited. Trucks also had to clear checkpoints, and porters carried heavy materials through steep, hilly terrain at high cost.
Quality was the bigger worry. Reasad recalls that vendors often cut corners to save money. Some used “thin wire instead of the required 5mm rod,” while others substituted cheap “stone dust” for proper stone chips. As a result, many rings cracked or broke in transit.
These failures had a knock-on effect. A vendor dispute could delay “a two-day job by five to seven days easily,” Reasad says. Outside rings also cost more, at roughly 1,200 to 1,300 Taka each [about $10 at the time of writing], and prices climbed further during the off-season.
CPI provides WASH services in three sub-camps of Kutupalong: 1W, 4, and 17. This work includes toilet construction and repair. In Camp 17, CPI also serves as the WASH sector focal point.
In the face of these procurement challenges, CPI tried a different approach: training and supporting Rohingya water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) workers to produce toilet components in the camp. The workers started by producing concrete pillars to build their skills, and then transitioned to rings and slabs.
The method is careful and consistent. CPI supplies cement, sand, stone chips, and 5mm rods into the camp through quarterly procurement. The Rohingya WASH workers then mix the concrete to a strict 1:2:4 ratio on a clean surface. Next, they pour the mixture into oiled molds and lift the molds once the concrete sets. Finally, they cure each ring by watering it for seven to eight days until it is strong enough to use.
Safety comes first throughout. Workers wear helmets, gloves, and gumboots, because cement dust can burn skin. With two molds running, the team produces four to five rings on a sunny day, and more molds would lift that number quickly. In short, this local model keeps sanitation in Kutupalong supplied with the parts it depends on.
The benefits show up quickly. First, the model cuts costs. CPI now produces a ring for about 1,000 Taka at most, saving 200 to 300 Taka per unit. Across a single toilet that needs 20 rings, that adds up to roughly 2,400 to 2,500 Taka [about $20 at the time of writing]. Overall, local production runs about 25% to 30% cheaper than buying from outside.
Speed improves, too. Because the team keeps an emergency stock of 15 to 20 rings ready, repairs no longer wait on distant vendors. Amanullah, the WASH team leader, puts it simply: “If a toilet ring breaks now, we fix it instantly.” Before, that same fix could take 15 days to a month.
Quality is the third gain. Since Reasad supervises production directly, every ring uses the correct rod, ratio, and curing. Consequently, the rings last longer and the cesspits stay sound. Better sanitation in Kutupalong now arrives faster, cheaper, and stronger than before. CPI even reinvests the savings into emergency stock should supply chains be disrupted.
As refugees themselves, Rohingya WASH workers benefit from employment through the program, which provides them with a livelihood and supports them and their families. As production has grown, CPI has brought on more Rohingya workers to help. Amanullah has lived in Camp 17 since 2017 and has worked in the WASH sector for nearly nine years. He began as a hygiene promotion worker and now leads a team.
The work has changed what he can do. “I didn’t know how to make rings before,” he says. Today, he trains others and feels confident enough to build for his own household. If he ever returns to Myanmar, he notes, the skill will travel with him.
The income matters just as much. Rations rarely cover everything, so Amanullah’s earnings fill the gaps. Above all, the money helps him care for his sick parents when they need treatment beyond the camp. Many families, he points out, cannot afford even 5,000 Taka for medical care.
This sense of ownership runs through the whole project. “If you just give people things for free, they won’t maintain them,” Reasad observes. Yet when Rohingya WASH workers build for their own neighbors, they protect that work with real pride.
The team now wants to grow. Space is the main constraint, since the production plot is small and the molds need room.
CPI is also considering selling rings and slabs at cost to other WASH organizations in the camp. Furthermore, the team hopes to share its lessons on quality control and worker training through workshops. If other agencies adopt the model, sanitation could improve across many more camps at once.
For now, the work continues one ring at a time. Each one strengthens a toilet, protects a family, and builds a skill that no one can take away. That is the quiet promise behind better sanitation in Kutupalong.
Community Partners International (CPI) strengthens, equips and connects local organizations in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand providing health and humanitarian services to conflict- and poverty-affected communities.
Support our mission: https://cpintl.org/ways-to-give/give
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