Image: A community member in Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh, receives a prize for the best-maintained tap stand on World Water Day from WASH workers supported by Community Partners International. (Md. Dipu/CPI)
On March 22, 2024, Rohingya and Bangladeshi host communities around Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Bangladesh marked World Water Day. The day brought parades, models and children’s art. Safe water for Rohingya refugees is hard to sustain in these high-density settlements, particularly during the dry season. The day’s activities showed how much community engagement matters in solving water problems.
The World Health Organization (WHO) sets 20 liters of safe water per person per day as the recommended requirement for drinking, basic hygiene and food hygiene. Laundry and bathing need more on top. Kutupalong hosts close to a million people, so meeting that level alone takes around 20 million liters a day.
Water scarcity is a significant challenge for the refugee population and neighboring Bangladeshi communities. Between March and June, there is almost no rainfall in Bangladesh. As groundwater and reservoir levels drop, refugees and local communities struggle to meet their basic water needs. Wells dry up and new wells have to drill deeper to reach water supplies. Families face long walks and long queues to access safe drinking water. Meanwhile, supply at toilets and bathing stations can become unreliable.
In these conditions, safe water for Rohingya refugees depends on constant repair and monitoring. Community-based water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) workers supported by Community Partners International (CPI) carry out that work. During 2023, they repaired and maintained more than 150 water points each month. As a result, 98 percent stayed in working order all year.
They also installed 55 new latrines, bathing stations and waste disposal points. Each month, they repaired and maintained more than 160 sanitation facilities, keeping 96 percent of them functional.
Water quality testing ran alongside. The workers tested water more than 4,000 times at households and water sources. They also distributed over 100,000 water purification tablets. They also carried out more than 43,000 household education sessions on water safety, hygiene and sanitation. In addition, they handed out more than 2,500 hygiene kits and nearly 50,000 packs of soap.
On March 22, these WASH workers joined colleagues and the community to highlight safe water, sanitation and hygiene. Activities included parades, WASH facility model-making, children’s art competitions, awareness sessions and community awards for well-managed neighborhood tap stands. The global theme that year was water for peace.
WASH workers crafted 25 miniature WASH facility models. These included toilets, bathing and handwashing stations, tap stands, tube wells, rainwater harvesting systems and waste disposal points. Workers then combined them into miniature WASH blocks and displayed them with educational posters. They also built shelves with a “W” design to hold the models.
CPI sponsored children’s art competitions on water, sanitation and hygiene themes. In total, 45 children living in the camps, aged 10 to 15, took part and drew pictures focused on safe water. Winners and runners-up received prizes, and organizers congratulated every participant.
Hygiene promotion workers supported by CPI ran about 180 awareness sessions during World Water Day. More than 3,500 people attended. The sessions covered water safety, contamination, safe storage and preventing water wastage.
Judges also presented awards to community user groups for the best-kept tap stands in their neighborhoods. They assessed several criteria: well-managed water collection schedules, tap stand and container cleanliness, safe water storage and avoiding wastage. The winning user groups received prizes for their efforts.
Safe water for Rohingya refugees remains an ongoing challenge in Kutupalong. Still, World Water Day showed what community involvement can achieve when a whole neighborhood takes part.
Community Partners International (CPI) strengthens, equips and connects local organizations in Myanmar, Bangladesh and Thailand providing health, humanitarian relief and well-being services to conflict- and poverty-affected communities.
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