Water and Sanitation Systems Fundamentals Training Course

Course overview

Water and sanitation programmes fail when system choices are made without enough attention to source reliability, demand, water quality risks, operation, maintenance and user practices. Field and programme staff must often assess incomplete information, compare technical options, and explain practical recommendations to communities, engineers, donors and local authorities. This course develops the judgement needed to work confidently across the water and sanitation service chain, from water source to safe use, containment, treatment and disposal or reuse.

Participants examine the core components of rural, peri-urban and emergency WASH systems: water sources, abstraction, treatment, storage, distribution, household water safety, sanitation technologies, faecal sludge management and hygiene promotion. They learn to calculate basic water demand, interpret water-quality results, map system components, identify contamination pathways, select appropriate sanitation options and apply risk-based Water Safety Plan principles. The course also addresses service levels, accessibility, inclusion, climate resilience, lifecycle costs and the institutional responsibilities required to keep systems functioning.

Delivery combines instructor-led technical sessions with worked calculations, system-design discussions, QGIS mapping activities and case studies based on humanitarian and development settings. Participants use a structured assessment template to investigate a simulated community water and sanitation challenge, analyse technical and public-health risks, and develop an improvement plan. They leave with a completed Water and Sanitation System Assessment and Action Plan that can be adapted for use in field assessments, programme design reviews or operational handovers.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with WASH projects or infrastructure decisions and need a stronger practical foundation without undertaking a specialist engineering design qualification. It is particularly relevant where staff must bridge technical, programme, public-health and community perspectives.

Course objectives

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

• Calculate community water demand, peak demand and basic storage requirements using population and service-level assumptions
• Map a water supply system from source to point of use and identify critical contamination pathways
• Interpret basic physical, chemical and microbiological water-quality results against WHO guideline values
• Apply Water Safety Plan risk assessment steps to identify hazards, control measures and monitoring actions
• Compare groundwater, surface-water, rainwater and hauled-water supply options using reliability and protection criteria
• Select sanitation and faecal sludge management options using site conditions, user needs and service-chain analysis
• Use EPANET to model a simple distribution network and review pressure, flow and storage implications
• Produce a Water and Sanitation System Assessment and Action Plan with prioritised technical and operational recommendations

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• WASH Programme Officers — who assess, design or monitor water and sanitation interventions
• Humanitarian Project Managers — who must make defensible technical and budget decisions for emergency WASH responses
• Public Health Officers — who need to link water quality, sanitation conditions and disease-prevention measures
• Field Engineers — who require a structured foundation for reviewing small-scale water and sanitation systems
• Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Officers — who need to define practical WASH service and functionality indicators
• Local Government Water and Sanitation Staff — who oversee community systems, service providers and maintenance arrangements

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience of development, humanitarian, public-health, infrastructure or community-services work and be comfortable reading simple tables, drawings and basic numerical calculations. Familiarity with common WASH terms such as litres per capita per day, water source, latrine, chlorination and drainage is helpful, but advanced engineering knowledge is not assumed. Participants should be able to use a laptop for spreadsheets and web-based documents. No prior EPANET, QGIS, hydraulic-modelling or CAD experience is required; guided exercises introduce the required features. Complete beginners to WASH can attend, but should expect a technically focused intermediate course.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led technical briefings followed by applied exercises built around a simulated peri-urban community WASH system. Participants calculate demand and storage, interpret laboratory results, trace contamination routes, map assets in QGIS and test a simple network in EPANET. Small groups compare source, treatment and sanitation alternatives against operational, environmental and inclusion criteria. Daily debriefs connect technical findings to programme decisions. On the final day, each participant consolidates their analysis into a prioritised system assessment and workplace application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: WASH service systems and needs assessment

• The water and sanitation service chain from source to safe disposal or reuse
• WASH service levels, equity, accessibility and inclusion criteria
• Water demand calculation using population, consumption and institutional-use assumptions
• Peak factors, seasonal variation and contingency demand
• Water source categories and source-yield reliability
• Sanitation service ladders and user-centred technology selection
• System mapping using assets, actors, flows and failure points

Workshop: Participants create a baseline service map and calculate daily and peak water demand for a simulated settlement.

Day 2: Water sources, treatment and quality protection

• Groundwater, surface-water, rainwater and water-trucking risk profiles
• Catchment and source protection measures
• Physical, chemical and microbiological water-quality parameters
• Interpreting turbidity, free residual chlorine, E. coli and nitrate test results
• Treatment trains for sedimentation, filtration, chlorination and household treatment
• Chlorine dosing, contact time and residual monitoring
• WHO Water Safety Plan hazard and control-measure framework

Workshop: Working from a set of laboratory results and a source inspection record, participants prepare a water-quality risk register and treatment recommendation.

Day 3: Storage, distribution and operational management

• Storage functions, sizing principles and operational reserve
• Gravity-fed and pumped distribution system configurations
• Pipe flow, pressure, head loss and residual pressure fundamentals
• EPANET model setup for nodes, pipes, reservoirs and demand patterns
• Pressure and flow result interpretation in EPANET
• Leakage, illegal connections and non-revenue water indicators
• Operations and maintenance plans, spare parts and operator responsibilities

Workshop: Participants build and test a simple EPANET network, then recommend changes to address low-pressure and supply-reliability problems.

Day 4: Sanitation technologies and faecal sludge management

• Containment, emptying, transport, treatment and end-use service-chain analysis
• Soil conditions, groundwater depth, flood risk and plot-space screening
• Pit latrines, septic tanks, pour-flush systems and simplified sewers
• Shared, public and institutional sanitation management requirements
• Faecal sludge emptying methods and occupational safety controls
• Treatment options including drying beds, co-composting and planted drying beds
• Climate resilience, gender, disability access and safeguarding in sanitation design

Workshop: Groups use a site-data pack to select a sanitation and faecal sludge management pathway and defend their choice against technical and social criteria.

Day 5: Integrated WASH risk management and action planning

• Applying Sphere Handbook WASH indicators to programme decisions
• Risk prioritisation using likelihood, consequence and control effectiveness
• QGIS asset mapping for water points, sanitation facilities and risk zones
• Functionality monitoring indicators and inspection schedules
• Lifecycle costing and affordability considerations
• Institutional roles for utilities, committees, contractors and local authorities
• Writing prioritised corrective actions, budgets and monitoring responsibilities

Workshop: Participants complete and present a Water and Sanitation System Assessment and Action Plan for the case community, including prioritised actions, owners and monitoring measures.

Tools & standards covered

EPANET, QGIS, WHO Water Safety Plan Manual, Sphere Handbook

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