WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
Session 2
Water Needs
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
• Water quantity
• Water quality
• International Sphere minimum standards
• Water needs of different users
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Which is more important in emergencies?
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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The Sphere Project
(2004) ‘Humanitarian
Charter and Minimum
Standards in Disaster
Response’
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• SPHERE Standard: ‘All people have safe and equitable access to a sufficient quantity of water for drinking, cooking and personal and domestic hygiene. Public water points are sufficiently close to households to enable use of the minimum water requirements’.
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• Sphere - key indicators:
– Average water use for drinking, cooking, personal hygiene in any household is at least 15 litres per person / day
– Maximum distance from any household to the nearest water point is 500m
– Queuing time no more than 15 minutes
– No more than 3 minutes to fill a 20 litre container
– Water available on a consistent or on a regular basis
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
Survival needs: water intake
(drinking and food)
Basic hygiene practices
2.5-3 litres per day
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Depends on: climate and individual physiology
2-6 litres per day Depends on: social and cultural norms
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Basic cooking needs
Total basic water needs
3-6 litres per day Depends on: food type, social as well as cultural norms
7.5-15 litres per day
Av use = 15 l.p.d
Sphere 2004
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• Laundry: 4-6 lpd
• Schools: 3 litres per student for drinking & hand-washing (toilets need additional water)
• Public toilets: 1-2 litres / user / day for hand-washing & 2-8 litres / cubicle / day for cleaning
• Health centres: 5 litres per out-patient; 40-60 litres per in-patient
• Hospital with laundry facilities: 220-300 litres per bed
• Cholera Treatment Centres: 60 litres / patient / day & 15 litres / carer / day
• Feeding centres: 20-30 litres per patient (+15 l / caretaker)
• Cattle, horses, mules: 20-30 litres per head [also different times inbetween watering]
• Small animals: 5 litres / small animal / day
WHO, Technical Note No 9, Sphere & other sources
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Northern Kenya
S House / AAH-US
Question - What could be the potential impacts for a family of having too few containers?
Northern Uganda
S House / MSF-OCBA
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Tajikistan
S House / OXFAM-GB
Questions:
What are the locally preferred containers?
How will they be transported over a distance?
Ethiopia
S House / WEDC
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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a)
How many water containers are needed for a family of 8
– for carrying and storing water? b) What other kinds of water vessels may be needed?
Pakistan
S House / OXFAM-GB
OXFAM Buckets:
• Durable
• Stackable for transportation
• Covered
• Easy to clean
• Tap for drawing water
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Liberia
S House / ACF
Pakistan
S House / OXFAM-GB
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Exercise - What lessons do these case studies provide for the provision of water in emergencies?
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
WEDC
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• Not everyone can access facilities as easily as others
• Locations of facilities must not make people more vulnerable women, people of minority ethnic groups, children
• Very important - involve women & vulnerable groups in discussions over the location and design of facilities
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Gender based violence - transmission
– site facilities in safe locations
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More vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases & harder to treat
• Different needs?
• Less able to attend meetings
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Work with hygiene promoters - discrete house to house visits
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Contact through health facilities
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Additional support:
– Larger quantity of water - hygiene purposes
– Less able to collect water
– May need more water containers, buckets, hygiene items
– Additional support - discretely given through health facilities
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• SPHERE Standard: ‘Water is palatable, and of sufficient quality to be drunk and used for personal and domestic hygiene without causing significant risk to health’
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• Sphere key indicators:
– A sanitary survey indicates a low risk of faecal contamination
– No faecal coliforms per 100ml at the point of delivery
– People drink water from a protected or treated source in preference to other readily available water sources
– For piped supplies or all at times of risk of a diarrhoea epidemic – free chlorine residual at the tap of 0.5mg/l with turbidity < 5 NTU
(after 30 mins, 20 o C)
– No negative health effect is detected due to short-term use of water contaminated by chemical (including carry-over of treatment chemicals) or radiological sources, and assessment shows no significant probability of such an effect
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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• Most important = microbiological contamination – preventing diarrhoeal diseases
• Protect water source from contamination
• Sanitary survey - useful to determine pollution risks
• Priority - camps and concentrated populations = disinfection
• People may reject water because of taste (including chlorination)
• Chlorination may be misunderstood – hygiene promotion essential
• Cholera outbreaks – also chlorination of point sources
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Prevent pollution of water sources – by appropriate siting
REDR, Engineering in Emergencies
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
• Sanitary survey
– Observing contamination risks
• Observation & smell
– Smell, froth, coloured film, excessive refuse, lack of small insects, dead fish
• Water quality testing
– Most important = pooltester - pH and chlorine residual
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Ethiopia
S House / WEDC
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WHO
WEDC
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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larger amount of water - limited contamination is better than smaller amount of water - high quality
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
Microbiological:
• Faecal coliforms
Physical:
• pH
• Turbidity
• Taste
• Total dissolved solids / conductivity
Chemical:
• Arsenic
• Fluoride
• Nitrate
• Nitrite
• Iron
• Manganese
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As soon as there is an adequate quantity of water of reasonable microbiological quality and taste
Particularly if remaining for the medium or longer term
It is good practice to:
– Undertake full water quality test - microbiological, physical and chemical
– Routine monitoring
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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies
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Focus on quantity and microbiological contaminants
WHO Guidelines for drinking water quality, Vol 3, 2004, p109
‘Many chemicals in drinking-water are of concern only after extended periods of exposure. Thus, to reduce the risk of outbreaks of waterborne and water-washed (e.g. trachoma, scabies, skin infections) disease, it is preferable to supply water in an emergency, even if it significantly exceeds the guideline values for some chemical parameters, rather than restrict access to water, provided water can be treated to kill pathogens and can be supplied rapidly to the affected population’.
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