Rohingya crisis enters tenth year as funding cuts put lifesaving services at risk: Oxfam

Anil Pant, Country Director of Oxfam in Bangladesh, said: 

“The greatest danger is becoming accustomed to this crisis. Funding pressure now threatens systems built over nearly a decade. We must protect lifesaving services, strengthen resilience and local capacity, support host communities, and renew collective action towards sustainable solutions.” 

Funding gaps remain substantial. In 2025, the first year of the 2025–26 Joint Response Plan, donors met just 46 percent of the $934.5 million appeal.  The shortfall is now compounding. The cuts have already gutted vital services in the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), food, health and protection sectors.  

Oxfam’s new report, Holding the Line: WASH Systems, Risk and Resilience in the Rohingya Response, shows what is at stake. Across Cox’s Bazar, emergency WASH interventions have evolved into a vast humanitarian public-health system, including 298 water networks, 320 production boreholes, 768 reservoir tanks, more than 7,000 tapstands, nearly 49,500 latrines, and 167 faecal sludge treatment plants. Yet the publication cautions that scale can hide fragility: ageing assets, dry-season water stress, monsoon exposure, uneven operational control and funding compression are increasing risk. 

For women and girls, that strain is a question of safety and dignity as much as sanitation. Asmat Ara, 24, who lives with six family members in a Rohingya camp in Teknaf, said hygiene supplies have dwindled and safe facilities are scarce, making daily life harder. 

“If it gets very late, I feel afraid to go outside,” she said. “Sometimes boys gather outside and make comments. I never go alone at night; I take my mother with me.” 

She also described the growing pressure on menstrual hygiene support: “The pads should be provided again, and the material could also be improved. We also need more soap.” 

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