Oxfam emergency water programmes should select the most appropriate approaches to ensure access to and use of safe, sufficient water to affected communities for drinking, cooking and other uses. 

Emergency Water Supply: First-Phase Emergency Strategy

The following immediate actions are required:

• Design emergency water supply responses based on local practices and preferences. 
• Provide hygiene promotion on the importance of the safe water chain – including collection, transport, storage, household water treatment, and use.
• Provide at least 15 litres per person per day (l/p/d) for the affected population, or provide clear justification where this is not possible/appropriate e.g. severe drought in arid lands.
• Chlorinate all sources of drinking water for camp or displaced populations, even if the turbidity is up to 50 NTU, to ensure a residual of 0.3–0.6mg/l is maintained. 
•  If turbidity is over 50 NTU then start treatment.
• Ensure affected communities have clean and sufficient vessels in which to collect water.
• When there is more than one water source (e.g. tubewell and tankered water), it should be clearly communicated to users which source is supposed to be for which purpose (e.g. tankered water for drinking and cooking and tubewell for other uses).

Community-Based Water Resource Management (CBWRM)

The increased scarcity of water in dryland areas, typically caused by low or variable rainfall patterns and exacerbated by climatic change, population growth, changes in land use practices, environmental degradation and poor governance of WASH services. CBWRM is a water management and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) tool that uses community awareness of risk and traditional coping mechanisms to support local adaptation and recovery from shocks and trends in water supply. 

WASH staff should: 

• Consider the multiple uses of water – drinking, cooking, washing AND livelihoods (e.g. irrigation, livestock, brick making, water vendoring etc.) by different groups when undertaking WASH assessments and planning activities. Although WASH programmes might be unable to provide water for all household and livelihood uses, WASH staff should have an understanding of the overall water demand.
• During assessments, work with the affected community to identify and prioritise risks to water supply. If these risks are significant, WASH staff should then design activities to address them.
• Consider and monitor the impacts of WASH programme activities on longer-term water resources, livelihoods and protection issues.

Water Quantity

• When calculating l/p/d, do not just divide the water production figures by the population but back the figures up with household water usage surveys. 
• Oxfam staff should refer to Sphere for details of daily water requirements for different users.
• Distance from the water source is the biggest factor in determining household consumption; therefore, always ensure that water points are distributed as evenly as possible. 

Water Quality Testing

• In a 1st phase emergency carry out a rapid sanitary survey of water sources and, wherever there is a suspicion of contamination, ‘protect’ the source and/or chlorinate the water. There is no need to undertake a bacteriological test at this stage. 
• All chlorinated sources should be monitored regularly.
• Bacteriological tests should be carried out when handing over improved water sources to communities and in the event of diarrhoeal disease outbreaks. 
• All water test results should be communicated to water users.

• If residual chlorine, bacterial or chemical analysis results fail, WASH staff should undertake immediate actions to address the issue.
• Ensure that water is acceptable to the users by addressing taste, colour and smell issues.

Chemical Quality

• Chemical analysis should be done once the emergency situation has stabilised or when local information indicates that there are serious-risk chemicals in the groundwater (e.g. arsenic areas, near intensive farming, mining operations or factories).
• Boreholes: Chemical analysis should be carried out for every borehole. This only needs to be done on completion unless it is in a high-risk area where regular monitoring – a test every 6 months – should take place.
• Water quality should conform to WHO guidelines, or local guidelines where these exist.

Bulk Water Treatment

If the water has an NTU of >50, chlorination alone will not be effective; the water should be treated. 

Considerations in water treatment:

• Find out if you are in an area where there are helminths or protozoa (Giardia and Cryptosporidium) that are resistant to chlorine, and ensure a fine mesh (4–6 microns) is added to the system. Some viruses may also require special treatment.
• Where possible, use gravity flow in the treatment system to avoid double pumping, and avoid constructing plants on flood-prone areas.
• Take great care when disposing of the highly toxic alum residual in the sedimentation tanks so as not to contaminate the ground- or surface-water.

Household Water Treatment and Storage

• In camp settings the focus of water treatment should be on bulk chlorination.
• Alternative household water treatment options, such as household-level chlorination (liquid chlorine or tablets), combined floc / disinfectant sachets, ceramic pots or candles, biosand filters, solar disinfection (SODIS) and boiling are generally more appropriate for non-camp settings (including slow-onset emergencies and when people are still in their homes). Factors influencing the decision as to which approach to implement include existing local practice, reliability of supplies, and local availability of spares / consumables.
• Information and follow up must always be provided when introducing HHWT to ensure that products are used effectively and safely
• All water treatment options are limited in their potential to protect health if the affected communities do not practice safe methods of collection, transportation and household storage of water. Such risks must be addressed in the response e.g. through NFI distributions, regular cleaning of containers and ongoing public health promotion. 

Hand-Dug Wells

• Wells should be dug during the dry season, to ensure the availability of water during all seasons.
• Always line hand-dug wells.
• Liners should adhere to Oxfam standard of 1.5m external and 1.3m internal diameters and 100mm thickness e.g. stone masonry or rendered, concrete ring.
• All hand-dug wells should have a minimum of 1m raised wellheads, and concrete aprons with proper drainage leading to gravel soak pits should be included (consider highest flood level). Consider protective fences or barriers around the vicinity of the well to keep animals away. 
• Where necessary address livestock and agriculture water needs in the design of the well.
• Gravel filters should be included at the bottom and sides of wells and drainage channels. 
• Always incorporate a sanitary seal, preferably a 1:2:4 concrete mix 1m from ground level (water table permitting).
• Ensure that an appropriate water-lifting device is installed that is acceptable to the user, easy to maintain and minimises well water contamination.
• Ensure that the wells are resilient to natural disasters by provision for deepening in drought prone areas and providing necessary protection from flooding. 

Boreholes and Groundwater

• All boreholes should have sanitary seals, concrete aprons with proper drainage to soak pits, and low-maintenance sustainable pumping devices that consider the highest flood level when selecting the height to raise the hand-pump. 
• Where gravel packs are needed the borehole diameter should usually be 200mm greater than the OD of screen/casing.
• Screen slot size should be 0.5mm or 1mm with an open area of 10%. Slot size should normally depend on the aquifer formation and the size of silt.
• The gravel pack should be well rounded and not angular, preferably 2-4mm diameter, and of silicate rich (>70%) or quartzitic nature.
• The gravel pack should completely enclose the screened portion to at least 5m above highest screen level. A bentonitic clay seal 0.5m should be placed above the gravel pack before backfilling.
• Pump testing should be carried out for 24hours after the development of the borehole to determine its safe yield.
• Well heads must as a minimum have a non-return valve, a flow control valve, and a flow meter. Normally they will have a pressure meter and sample tap as well.  
• All motorised boreholes need a dip tube or data logger to measure the groundwater level, and a system put in place for recording of the data.
• Every motorised borehole pump should have dry running protection – a low water level cut off – if dry run protection is not already integrated into the pump.

Design of Rainwater Collection

• Rainwater collection works best for schools and institutions with a large roof space and large storage tanks but is also effective for individual households or communal buildings where other sources are contaminated and it rains frequently. 
• There should be a mechanism to prevent first rain run-off from entering the storage tank. 
• In diarrhoeal outbreaks the storage tanks should be included in an emergency chlorination programme.
• There should be a cover on the rainwater collection tank to prevent contamination.

Design of Water Collection Points

• Water collection points should be designed to avoid standing water around them; in particular, a proper soakaway should be incorporated into the design.
• The tap stand should be no more than 10cm (4”) higher than the tallest locally used water container.
• Ensure that provision is made for people with limited mobility to access water.
• Users should be consulted on tap stand locations but try to ensure the tap stands are located strategically (near to schools, health and feeding centres etc.)

Gravity-Fed Systems

• Low maintenance requirements and the formation of User Management Committees are essential for sustainability.
• Technical calculations and detailed drawings are required before construction begins.
• Pipe design networks should range between the following values:
  • Flow rates to faucets 0.1 to 0.3 l/s
  • Tap stand residual heads 4 to 12m (depends on faucet type)
  • Velocity in all pipes generally 0.3 to 1.5 m/s.
  • All PVC/PE pipes should have classed pressure ratings with the minimum 6 bar (higher pipe pressure ratings may be required depending particular design)   
• PVC/PE distribution pipes should be buried a minimum of 0.8m (1.5 in sub zero temperatures). When pipes cannot be buried GI pipes should be used. 
• All designs that pass through landslide prone areas should have serpentile or progressive joints for quick isolation, diversion or replacement.
• Gravity designs should include appropriate wash out and air purging points where necessary to ensure the correct functioning of the system. 

Spring Capping / Protection

• Fence the whole spring capping area to prevent access by livestock or any other animals.
• Provide the spring box with a simple silt trap, silt wash-out and an overflow pipe below the level of the eye.
• Where possible, provide storage – depending on the flow rate and water demand.
• In areas where epidemics occur regularly, make provision to chlorinate spring boxes.

Surface Water

• Ensure all surface water sources are protected from (human and animal) contamination and that water is treated before drinking.

Water Tankering

• Water tankering is very costly and extremely difficult to monitor effectively, so it should only be a short-term measure until more sustainable water sources are in place.
• A full exit plan should be drawn up before beginning a tankering programme.
• Due to high costs, tankering budget lines should be itemised to calculate the real price rather than just estimating a lumpsum. 
• If tankering water, always ensure there are tanks/bladders with tap stands for tankers to discharge the water: users should not collect straight from the back of the tanker.
• Where possible, water should be chlorinated at discharge tanks

Solar Powered Pumping

• Solar powered installations should be the first option for all off-grid water pumping projects.
• All solar installations should be properly designed, preferably using dedicated software.
• Systems should be sized to ensure there is enough water available during the worst time of year.
• Provision should be made for days when there is very low solar irradiation – either through accepting lower reliability (if other water sources are available), installation of a backup or hybrid power source (generator or grid connection), or appropriately sized backup water storage.
• Given the flow rate of water from solar powered pumping changes throughout the day, special consideration should be given to how chlorination or other water treatment will be undertaken. For example, a variable flow chlorine doser may be necessary.
• Where possible the system should be fully automated. This will increase system reliability.

• Always remember that even a single solar module is a live circuit that can result in electrocution. Fix all modules securely onto the support structure before doing any wiring and minimise the risk of accidents by covering and shading modules with their packaging until the installation is complete.
• All DC wiring should, if possible, be completed prior to installing a PV array. This will allow effective electrical
  isolation of the DC system while the array is installed; and effective electrical isolation of the PV array while the inverter is installed.
• Solar modules consists of glass which can easily break. Do not throw objects at the solar module, stand or step on the module or try to repair your solar module if it breaks.
• Two or more modules connected in parallel or series if connected incorrectly to a pump can damage or destroy the equipment. Do not carry out modifications on your system without technical guidance from your system supplier or a qualified technician.
• Modules that have different characteristics in model, power, voltage and current should not be connected together in the same system (mismatching)
• Shadowing should be avoided as it leads to significant power loss.