L'eau potable humanitaire
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Is humanitarian water safe to drink?

Jean-Hervé Bradol
Jean-Hervé
Bradol

Medical doctor, specialized in tropical medicine, emergency medicine and epidemiology. In 1989 he went on mission with Médecins sans Frontières for the first time, and undertook long-term missions in Uganda, Somalia and Thailand. He returned to the Paris headquarters in 1994 as a programs director. Between 1996 and 1998, he served as the director of communications, and later as director of operations until May 2000 when he was elected president of the French section of Médecins sans Frontières. He was re-elected in May 2003 and in May 2006. From 2000 to 2008, he was a member of the International Council of MSF and a member of the Board of MSF USA. He is the co-editor of "Medical innovations in humanitarian situations" (MSF, 2009) and Humanitarian Aid, Genocide and Mass Killings: Médecins Sans Frontiéres, The Rwandan Experience, 1982–97 (Manchester University Press, 2017).

Francisco
Diaz

Former Head of Logistics for Médecins Sans Frontières in France

Portrait de Marc Le Pape
Marc
Le Pape

Marc Le Pape has been a researcher at the CNRS and then at the EHESS. He is currently a member of the scientific committee of the CRASH. Formerly with the CNRS, Marc Le Pape is currently a researcher at the l'Ehess (Centre d'études africaines). He has carried out research in Algeria, Côte d'Ivoire and Central Africa. His recent studies have focused on the Great Lakes region in Africa. He has co-directed several publications: Côte d'Ivoire, l'année terrible 1999-2000 (2003), Crises extrêmes (2006) et dans le cadre de MSF : Une guerre contre les civils. Réflexions sur les pratiques humanitaires au Congo-Brazzaville, 1998-2000 (2001) and Génocide et crimes de masse. L'expérience rwandaise de MSF 1982-1997 (2016). 

Jérome
Léglise

WASH Specialist at Médecins Sans Frontières, based in Paris

Date de publication

Four hepatitis E epidemics have occurred in the areas in which we operate since 2000, prompting a reflection on the quality of the water produced and distributed to their populations by humanitarian organisations. Epicentre's 2004 epidemiological study in the Mornay displaced persons camp in West Darfur state in Sudan (Outbreak of Hepatitis E in Mornay IDP camp, December 2004) highlighted the fact that the correctly chlorinated water distributed by the supply system set up by MSF was one of the means by which hepatitis E was transmitted. The experience of these epidemics led to three conclusions: the frequency of hepatitis E epidemics is not negligible, insofar as they have occurred four times in less than ten years in our areas of operation; in the specific case of this disease our water production procedures, although correctly followed, did not remove the threat; and finally, it is not easy to identify practical alternatives in the situations in which we operate.

Whilst the starting point was a particular disease, hepatitis E, the discussions held at the time showed that the health concerns associated with weaknesses in the water supply procedures used by aid organisations were not confined to this one illness. What are the difficulties we face in producing and distributing sufficient quantities of water that is clear, acceptable in terms of taste, free from faecal germs and correctly chlorinated? What role should the "beneficiaries" play in defining the quality criteria to be met? What are the situations where we think we have achieved this objective and yet a significant health risk remains? What do we know about the relationship between water and health? How do people working in a non-humanitarian context define water as fit for drinking? To what point is people's state of health influenced more by the quantity of water available than its quality? Where do the indicators used by humanitarian organisations to determine whether water is fit for drinking come from, and are they still relevant? Do we need to move away from a culture of complying with the current standard to a culture of managing residual risk, whatever the standards used? Do recent technological developments offer new prospects? Can we hope to improve water quality without making progress in terms of energy consumption, the importance of which is one of the characteristics of drinking water production systems that are more sophisticated than ours?

Aside from medical, scientific and technological considerations, however, access to water is a major social, economic and political issue as well as a local, regional, national and international one. How do consumers perceive the actions of water production and distribution organisations? What are the social, economic and political tensions determining how water is managed and the relationship between users and agencies that deliver water? What are the main areas of focus of national and international public policy in this area?

To cite this content :
Jean-Hervé Bradol, Francisco Diaz, Marc Le Pape, Jérome Léglise, Is humanitarian water safe to drink?, 4 juillet 2011, URL : https://msf-crash.org/en/medicine-and-public-health/humanitarian-water-safe-drink

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