WASH Service Planning in Refugee Camps Training Course

Course overview

Refugee-camp WASH teams must make service decisions under changing population figures, constrained water sources, seasonal hazards, land limitations and multiple implementing partners. A technically sound borehole or latrine design is not enough if water-point coverage, desludging capacity, household access, drainage and hygiene support are planned separately. This course equips practitioners to turn rapid assessments, camp layouts and protection concerns into an operational WASH service plan that can be funded, implemented and monitored.

Participants work through the full planning cycle for a simulated refugee camp: analysing population and demand data; applying Sphere and UNHCR service standards; mapping water sources, distribution points and sanitation facilities; selecting appropriate service options; calculating quantities and capacities; and sequencing activities across emergency and stabilisation phases. They learn to set service-level targets, identify public-health and protection risks, develop monitoring indicators, and coordinate practical interfaces with shelter, health, camp management and protection teams.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with camp-planning exercises, data-analysis workshops and facilitated decision reviews. Participants use a realistic camp scenario, service maps, water-demand calculations, facility inventories and budget assumptions to produce a defendable WASH service plan. The final deliverable is a camp-specific planning pack containing a situation analysis, service targets, infrastructure and operational actions, monitoring framework, implementation schedule, risk register and prioritised cost assumptions.

The course is designed for WASH professionals who already understand basic humanitarian response concepts and now need stronger planning capability for refugee-camp operations. It is particularly valuable where teams must justify service choices to donors, camp authorities, UNHCR counterparts and implementing partners while maintaining safe, equitable access for displaced populations.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Analyse refugee-camp population, water-source and facility data to establish a WASH service baseline
• Apply Sphere Handbook and UNHCR Emergency Handbook indicators to set defensible water, sanitation and hygiene service targets
• Calculate daily water demand, storage volume, distribution capacity and water-point coverage using planning worksheets
• Develop a sanitation service chain map covering containment, collection, transport, treatment and safe disposal or reuse
• Prioritise WASH interventions through a public-health, protection, accessibility and feasibility risk matrix
• Create a phased camp WASH service plan with activities, responsibilities, dependencies, timelines and cost assumptions
• Design a monitoring framework with service-level indicators, data sources, collection frequency and escalation thresholds
• Present a camp WASH planning pack that justifies technical choices to coordination partners and funding decision-makers

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• WASH Officers and Engineers — who must plan reliable water and sanitation services across camp zones and settlement phases
• Refugee Camp Managers — who coordinate agencies, land use and service priorities across a shared operational footprint
• Programme Managers — who need to approve practical WASH scopes, budgets, sequencing and implementation risks
• Public Health Officers — who link WASH service gaps to diarrhoeal disease prevention, outbreak readiness and surveillance
• WASH Coordinators — who align partner plans, standards, coverage data and operational responsibilities
• MEAL Officers supporting WASH programmes — who need to build credible service monitoring systems from camp-level data

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have prior exposure to humanitarian WASH programming, including basic concepts such as litres per person per day, water quality, excreta disposal, hygiene promotion and the distinction between emergency and longer-term services. Experience reading simple site plans, facility inventories, population data or activity budgets is useful. Participants should be comfortable working with spreadsheet calculations and tables; Microsoft Excel or an equivalent spreadsheet application is assumed. This is not a hydraulic design or water-treatment engineering course, and advanced engineering mathematics, GIS expertise, EPANET modelling experience or prior refugee-camp deployment are not required.

Training methodology

The course is delivered through instructor-led technical sessions anchored in a single evolving refugee-camp case. Participants interpret population figures, water-quality results, site constraints and facility inventories; calculate demand and capacity in spreadsheet templates; and debate service options in cross-functional planning groups. Facilitated reviews test each decision against Sphere indicators, UNHCR guidance, protection concerns and operational feasibility. Daily exercises add sections to a final planning pack. On day five, participants present their plan to a simulated coordination group and create an individual workplace application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Camp context, assessment and service baselines

• Refugee-camp WASH operating models and coordination responsibilities
• Population disaggregation by household, zone, age, gender and vulnerability
• Rapid WASH assessment design and secondary-data review
• Sphere Handbook service indicators for camp water and sanitation
• UNHCR Emergency Handbook planning considerations for refugee settings
• Water, sanitation and hygiene baseline datasets and data-quality checks
• Public-health, protection and accessibility risk identification

Workshop: Participants analyse a simulated camp assessment pack and produce a baseline service-gap statement for each camp zone.

Day 2: Water service planning and system capacity

• Water-source assessment: yield, reliability, quality and seasonal variation
• Litres-per-person-per-day demand calculations by service use
• Storage sizing, pumping assumptions and distribution network capacity
• Water-point location planning using distance, queuing and accessibility criteria
• Household water access, collection burdens and gender-sensitive design
• Water safety planning controls from source to point of use
• Water-service monitoring indicators for quantity, quality, reliability and equity

Workshop: Participants create a water-service plan with demand calculations, storage assumptions, water-point coverage and monitoring indicators.

Day 3: Sanitation, drainage and hygiene service systems

• Technology selection for communal, household and inclusive sanitation facilities
• Excreta-flow mapping across containment, emptying, transport, treatment and disposal
• Latrine siting criteria for groundwater protection, safety and access
• Desludging demand forecasting and service-provider capacity assessment
• Solid-waste management interfaces with sanitation and vector control
• Drainage planning for standing water, flooding and erosion risks
• Hygiene behaviour support linked to facility use and disease prevention

Workshop: Participants develop a sanitation service-chain map and prioritised facility, desludging and drainage actions for the case camp.

Day 4: Integrated planning, costing and coordination

• Phased WASH planning from immediate response to camp stabilisation
• Option appraisal using cost, risk, speed, maintainability and user acceptance
• Bill-of-quantities assumptions and operational cost categories
• Work breakdown structures, activity sequencing and critical dependencies
• RACI matrices for agencies, camp authorities, utilities and community groups
• Integration points with shelter, health, protection, site planning and energy teams
• Risk registers for outbreaks, source failure, flooding, insecurity and supply disruption

Workshop: Participants assemble a phased implementation schedule, responsibility matrix, risk register and high-level cost assumptions for their plan.

Day 5: Monitoring, adaptation and plan approval

• Service-level monitoring frameworks and indicator definitions
• KoboToolbox form design for facility checks and household feedback
• Disaggregated analysis of access, safety, functionality and satisfaction
• Trigger thresholds and corrective-action escalation procedures
• Community feedback mechanisms and accountability to affected people
• Plan review methods for coordination meetings and donor submissions
• Adaptive planning after population movements, outbreaks or infrastructure failure

Workshop: Participants complete and present their camp WASH planning pack, receiving a structured coordination-panel review and drafting workplace application actions.

Tools & standards covered

Sphere Handbook, UNHCR Emergency Handbook, KoboToolbox, Microsoft Excel

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions