Ensuring camp-based refugees a safe and adequate supply of water
is an ongoing challenge for UNHCR. Many camps are located in arid
areas where water is scarce, or in hot wet regions where
water-borne diseases and parasites pose a particular threat.
Overcrowding easily results in water contamination and diseases
like dysentery, bloody diarrhoea and cholera are widespread.
According to UNHCR's emergency guidelines, the minimum amount of
water required for survival is 7 litres per refugee per day, which
should be increased to 15 to 20 litres per day as soon as
possible.
UNHCR water projects can be complex. They range from providing
jerry cans and hand pumps, drilling wells, running generators and
installing water points in refugee camps, to trucking water to
refugee sites, and even providing high satellite imaging used by
our hydrologists to locate water deep underground.
