People affected by emergencies

Catastrophic emergencies like floods and earthquakes will affect everyone, but the poor and vulnerable will always be at a disadvantage. In many situations, the people most likely to be severely affected are internally displaced people and refugees. In situations of war and conflict people naturally want to escape and so they move in large numbers away from the conflict zone. The places they arrive at frequently have no infrastructure and very limited resources.

Internally displaced people are people who are forced to flee their homes due to circumstances such as natural disasters or war, but who remain within their own country's borders. For example, during 2014, internal war and conflictcaused thousands of people in the Central African Republic, Southern Sudan and Syria to flee their homes and move elsewhere in their country. Such events call for a fast and coordinated effort to provide basic services such as shelter, food, water, latrines, handwashing facilities, etc.When providing shelter, the choice of location is often dependent on the availability of water.

Conflictsof this kind can also result in people seeking refuge outside their own country. For instance, in 2015, there were more than 600,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan who had fled the conflict in their home country (UNHCR, 2015). Camps had to be set up in the desert, and of course the supply of water was crucial.