The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center today signed a joint cooperation agreement with the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) to implement a project providing safe and sustainable water and sanitation services to Rohingya refugees residing in the Cox's Bazar camps in the People's Republic of Bangladesh, with a value of $2,500,000.

The agreement was signed at the center's headquarters in Riyadh, with the two sides represented by the Center’s Assistant Supervisor General for Operations and Programs, Engineer Ahmed bin Ali Al-Baiz, and the Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the organization, Othman Fuad Al-Balbisi.

The agreement includes an integrated package of projects, most notably improving 10 water networks and upgrading solar energy systems, and developing a laboratory for monitoring water and wastewater quality with modern equipment, including biological oxygen demand meters and automatic digestion reactors.

In the field of sanitation management, the agreement includes installing 6 new decentralized wastewater treatment systems, renovating 34 existing systems, establishing 7 sludge transfer networks, as well as rehabilitating about 240 toilets with inclusive designs, and constructing a plastic recycling plant to process various types of plastic waste and convert them into durable products such as paving tiles and manhole covers.

The agreement also includes rehabilitating 896 tube wells, installing 100 handwashing stations, distributing 45,000 water containers, 23,400 color-coded waste containers, and 65,000 hygiene management kits, in addition to building the capacity of staff and community members in four main areas: water management, quality control, sludge management, and solid waste management.

The project directly benefits 206,624 refugees and indirectly benefits 9,542 refugees, and this comes as an extension of the humanitarian efforts provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center to provide the requirements of a decent life for refugees and those affected in various parts of the world.