For more than 20 years, refugees from Myanmar have been fleeing to Thailand to seek refuge from human rights abuses and fighting between armed opposition groups and the Burmese military. Around 150,000 refugees live in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border. Over the last five years, a large-scale resettlement programme has allowed many refugees to immigrate to other countries. However, resettlement is only an option for a part of the population. There remains a pressing need to achieve comprehensive solutions for the refugees who will stay in Thailand for at least the next few years, or until voluntary repatriation is possible.

The new WASH project, which is co-financed by the EU, is designed in a way to transfer all WASH-related activities in the camps from the previous NGO-run system to a community-based management model. That means that the population is now responsible for planning, implementing and monitoring the water and sanitation systems from which they benefit. And, because it is also important to consider the environmental and health situation of the entire region, the residents in the surrounding villages also participate in and benefit from the project.