Disaster Risk Reduction 

Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) are recognised as increasingly important in WASH contexts that face risk of recurrent or chronic emergencies.

Due to the increasing frequency and impact of disasters, WASH programmes need to consider how DRR can be integrated into interventions. Examples of integration of DRR are given in the ‘Learning Companion on DRR and WASH’. 

At a minimum, WASH staff should:

• Contribute to the development of preparedness plans in anticipation of disasters, including contingency plans and stocks (See section C10 Contingency Planning). 
• When appropriate, include key DRR questions into assessments and think beyond the present situation when undertaking WASH assessments or monitoring:
  • Identify the hazards and vulnerabilities that may impact on critical WASH services e.g. is there evidence that natural hazards are increasing?
  • What impact might this have on communities and are there opportunities for empowering affected communities to understand the disaster risks (including climate change patterns), identify solutions, and negotiate the means to implement these?
• Reduce the potential impact of hazard events on WASH services (through preparedness and mitigation)
• Where possible ensure WASH systems are better able to withstand future disasters
• Ensure that emergency WASH services “do no harm”

Contingency Planning 

Each Oxfam country programme should have a Contingency Plan that will detail the risk and predicted impact of disease outbreaks, natural disasters, political instability/violence and other complex emergencies. There should also be specific guidelines for the remote management of programmes to maximise our impact regardless of our direct presence. 

In collaboration with Programme Management and the Humanitarian Programme Co-ordinator, WASH teams should:

• Consider the main WASH-related risks in the programme (and/or in country-wide) and feed these into the country contingency planning process. 
• Train partners in contingency planning and emergency preparedness: frequently local partners are far better placed to respond to emergencies and continue services during remote management.
• Participate in inter-agency contingency planning (e.g. through the WASH Cluster or UN OCHA) related to public health risks.
• Advocate for appropriate contingency stocks to be held at country level through the UN or NGO systems.
• Consider running a simulated response to the highest WASH risks as part of staff capacity building and preparedness.