WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies W W2 1 Water in Emergencies Session 2 Water Needs

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WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies

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Water in Emergencies

Session 2

Water Needs

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Water needs

• Water quantity

• Water quality

• International Sphere minimum standards

• Water needs of different users

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Water quality or quantity…

Which is more important in emergencies?

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Minimum Standards

The Sphere Project (2004) ‘Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster

Response’

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Water Quantity

• 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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Water Quantity

• 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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Water QuantitySurvival needs: water intake (drinking and food)

2.5-3 litres per day

Depends on: climate and individual physiology

Basic hygiene practices

2-6 litres per day Depends on: social and cultural norms

Basic cooking needs

3-6 litres per day Depends on: food type, social as well as cultural norms

Total basic water needs

7.5-15 litres per day

Av use = 15 l.p.d

Sphere 2004

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Other Water Needs• 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 in-between watering]

• Small animals: 5 litres / small animal / day

WHO, Technical Note No 9, Sphere & other sources

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How Many Containers?

Question - What could be the potential impacts for a family of having too few containers?

Northern Kenya

S House / AAH-US

Northern Uganda

S House / MSF-OCBA

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Which Types of Containers?

Questions:

What are the locally preferred containers?

How will they be transported over a distance?

Tajikistan

S House / OXFAM-GB

Ethiopia

S House / WEDC

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Calculating Container Needsa) 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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Liberia

S House / ACF

Pakistan

S House / OXFAM-GB

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Meeting whose needs…?

Exercise - What lessons do these case studies provide for the provision of water in emergencies?

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Water Accessibility

• 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

WEDC

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People Living with HIV/AIDS & Water in Emergencies

• Gender based violence - transmission – site facilities in safe locations

• More vulnerable to diarrhoeal diseases & harder to treat

• Different needs?

• Less able to attend meetings

• Work with hygiene promoters - discrete house to house visits

• Contact through health facilities

• 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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Water Quality

• 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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Water Quality• 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 oC)

– 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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Water quality – immediate stages

• 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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REDR, Engineering in Emergencies

Prevent pollution of water sources – by appropriate siting

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Assessing Quality

• Sanitary survey – Observing

contamination risks

• Observation & smell– Smell, froth, coloured

film, excessive refuse, lack of small insects, dead fish

• Water quality testing– Most important = pool-

tester - pH and chlorine residual

Ethiopia

S House / WEDC

WEDC

WHO

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BE CAREFUL NOT TO

MISINTERPRET WATER QUALITY RESULTS

larger amount of water - limited contamination

is

better than

smaller amount of water - high quality

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Water Quality Assessment – Medium / Longer Term

Microbiological:• Faecal coliforms

Physical:• pH• Turbidity• Taste• Total dissolved solids /

conductivity

Chemical: • Arsenic• Fluoride• Nitrate • Nitrite• Iron• Manganese

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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Water QualityFocus 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’.

Documents

WASH Cluster – Water in Emergencies W W2 1 Water in Emergencies Session 2 Water Needs