National Disaster Response Plan (NDRP) March 2010 - NDMA

70
risks is essential. In emergency situations normally, water is treated with
chlorine; chlorine purification tablets are commonly used to disinfect the water.
Chlorine is the most common format of disinfecting water in emergency
situation it is easy and cheap to use chlorine to disinfect water. It is important to
put the right quantity of chlorine in the water otherwise chlorine may change
taste of water with resultant public disinclination towards consuming the same.
When water is disinfected with chlorine, it is important that the community
should be educated about the quantity of chlorine per liter being used to
disinfect the water 28 . The following standards in water supply in emergencies
are used internationally in emergencies situation. These standards are adopted
from The Sphere Project Minimum Standards in Disaster Response:
(a) Water Supply Standard 1 - Access and Water Quantity. All people
have safe and equitable access to sufficient quantity of water for
drinking, cooking, personal and domestic hygiene, Public water points
are sufficiently close to households to enable use of the minimum water
requirement. Average water use for drinking, cooking and personal
hygiene in any household is at least 15 liters per person per day.
(b) Water Supply Standard 2 - Water Quality. Water is palatable, and of
sufficient quality to be drunk and used for personal and domestic
hygiene without causing significant risk to health.
(c) Water Supply Standard 3 - Water use Facilities and Goods. People
have adequate facilities and supplies to collect, store and use sufficient
quantity of water for drinking, cooking and personal and domestic
hygiene, and to ensure that drinking water remains safe until it is
consumed.
b. Sanitation. In early days of the emergency, providing sanitation facilities is one of
the major challenges particularly in flood and cyclone situations. Public buildings where
community is provided shelters have inadequate or poor sanitation facilities. This can
put affected population on higher risk of diseases. Therefore, it is very important that
public buildings which are used as temporary emergency shelter have adequate
sanitation facilities. Sanitation includes excreta disposal, vector control, solid waste
disposal and drainage.
28 UNICE Emergency Handbook, Oxfam GB Water/Sanitation Guidelines and The Sphere Project Minimum
Standards in Disaster Response