Water and Sanitation Engineering from Emergency Towards Development - UNINE/ICRC, Switzerland

The main objective of this course is to train qualified and motivated engineers and scientists who are active (or intending to become active) in the wash-sector in humanitarian contexts. The participants should be able, at the end of the course, to plan, implement and monitor water and sanitation emergency programs, and design an emergency response in the context of humanitarian operations as well as to better understand the institutional context of humanitarian situations.

The training covers a wide range of technical aspects required to efficiently handle emergency situations with approaches aiming towards development. The training thereby facilitates integration of engineers and scientists in humanitarian operations and makes the participants aware of the close links between public health, water and sanitation in disaster-stricken populations.

The training course is subdivided a mixture of theoretical sessions directly followed by practical work in the field. The following topics are covered: fundamentals of water supply, i.e. basics of operational hydrogeology, water resource management, groundwater exploration and exploitation, water quality and treatment, water distribution, sanitation in emergencies and WASH relevant aspects of epidemic management. During the practical course, all the theoretical assets are combined with hands-on exercises in all fields, from assemblage of an emergency water treatment and distribution unit, water and bacteriological analysis, well testing and geophysical exploration in parallel with a week-long simulation exercise which focuses on developing intervention strategies during emergency response within the complex humanitarian institutional landscape.