Access to water and sanitation is one of the major challenges for the 21st century. According to WHO (2004), 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe water and 2.4 billion people do not have access to basic sanitation facilities. As a consequence, around 4 million people, the majority of whom are children, die every year from water and sanitation-related diseases. For 25 years, in line with its vocation of fighting hunger, the Action contre la Faim international network has been implementing field programmes aimed at supporting populations inhumanitarian situations, along with research and technical development in order to optimise its interventions. This book is the result of this experience and presents methods and techniques of intervention, not only to provide and ensure access to water - groundwater prospecting, drilling, well digging, constructing spring catchments and gravity supply systems, treatment and distribution of surface water and collection of rainwater - but also sanitary measures, hygiene promotion, capacity building of communities and local partners, and much more. This manual is a revised and extended version of the first, French edition, Alimentation en eau des populations menac ee s, by Éric Drouart and Jean-Michel Vouillamoz (Hermann, 1999); it has been deeply reviewed, revised, updated and extended, under the coordination of Hubert Sémiond and Francisco Gonzalez. It focuses on efficient and concrete action, as well as on context and needs analysis. It is intended for those concerned by programmes involving water supply, sanitation, hygiene promotion and local capacity building. Access to the manual can be found on the Action Against Hunger website http://www.actionagainsthunger.org http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/resources/summary/Water+Sanitation+and+Hygiene+for+Populations+at+Risk
