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INTRODUCTION
Worldwide, inadequate sanitation and waste management have been found to be two of the world's most significant causes of poor health conditions and anthropogenic environmental degradation. As of 2017, globally, only four out of 10 people have access to safely managed sanitation services, which means that more than half of the world's population live under improper sanitation (UNICEF 2019). Worldwide, over 673 million people are forced to practice open defecation (WHO 2019b). Poor sanitation may lead to diarrheal deaths, spread of tropical diseases and malnutrition, among many other health impacts. Sanitation-related diarrheal symptoms globally produce a high death toll of 432,000 annually; including the death of 297,000 children aged under 5 years (WHO 2019b). In a broader perspective, poor sanitation can also be connected to other socio-economic crisis, e.g., sexual assault, illiteracy and lack of access to formal education, domestic violence, anxiety or psychological trauma (Pommells et al. 2018; Biswas & Joshi 2021). Adding to these sanitation-related issues, improper waste management strategies make the situation even worse, expanding the scope of human contact with improperly managed waste (WHO 2019a). The per capita waste generation worldwide ranges between 0.11 and 4.53 kilograms a day; and at least 33% of all waste produced does not undergo any sort of adequate treatment or management (World Bank 2016). The scenario is complex in the case of vulnerable populations found in poor neighborhoods in low-income countries (Mageswari & Gowtham 2020) and specifically in refugee camps (Jobbin et al. 2018).
Poorly managed sanitation systems are among the most serious everyday problems in refugee camps (Cronin et al. 2008) and improved sanitation is critical particularly during and after emergency periods, when people are most susceptible (specifically children, elderly, pregnant and lactating mothers). It has been reported that managing solid waste in refugee camps is a challenging task for the authorities in host regions (Saidan et al. 2017).
Rohingya Muslims, one of the stateless populations in the world, is an ethnic minority from Myanmar. Rendered stateless, the Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and other neighboring countries to take refuge (Parnini et al. 2013; Milton et al. 2017). Over 1 million Rohingya Muslims displaced by Myanmar are currently sheltered in different camps in Cox's Bazar, Chittagong Division, in Bangladesh. These camps are lacking...