Emergencies Database

Emergency Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Health Emergency Shelter Disaster Recovery Relief Organizations With Engineering Component

Below is a list of documents that could be used to address emergency problems in developing communities. Emergency engineering requires a different mindset and the deployment of quick and effective solutions.

Sphere Handbook 2011: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards on Disaster Response

Emergency Water Supply, Sanitation and Environmental Health

• Pacific Institute's Peter Gleick : Water for Haiti: Now. Knowledge/Recommendations on appropriate water technologies for emergency in Haiti

• Point of Use Water Treatment in Emergency Response

• World Health Organization (WHO) publications on sanitation in emergencies - engineers' guides
• WHO Environmental Health in Emergencies and Disasters - A Practical Guide
• Water Engineering Development Center (WEDC) has produced a series of books which are designed to help those who are involved in planning and implementing emergency programs. They provide lessons from previous experience for the decisions which have to be made in emergencies. WEDC has produced a series of technical notes for emergencies for the WHO:
  
  1. Cleaning and disinfection of wells in emergencies
  2. Cleaning and disinfection of boreholes in emergencies
  3. Cleaning and disinfection of water storage tanks and tankers in emergencies
  4. Rehabilitating small-scale piped water distribution systems after an emergency
  5. Emergency treatment of drinking water at point-of-use
  6. Rehabilitating water treatment works after an emergency
  7. Solid waste management in emergencies
  8. Disposal of dead bodies in emergency conditions
  9. Minimum water quantity needed for domestic use in emergencies
  10. Essential hygiene messages in post-disaster emergencies
  11. How to measure chlorine residual in water
  12. Delivering safe water by tankers
  13. Planning for excreta disposal in emergencies
  14. Technical options for excreta disposal
  15. Cleaning Wells after Seaward Flooding

Emergency Shelter

• Safer Homes, Stronger Communities: A Handbook for Reconstructing after Natural Disasters.

• Concrete Canvas uses a patented material technology, a cement impregnated cloth, bonded to an inflatable mould to create a structure that can be deployed in 40 minutes and is ready to use in 12 hours.
• Construction Manual for Earthquake-Resistant Houses Built of Earth (from EWB-Germany)
• Acrylic Roofs are light weight, acrylic modified concrete on stretched fiberglass or cloth membranes can be used for the roofing of habitable shelters, utility buildings, water tanks and tank covers. This shell membrane building technique has unique application in settings where technical expertise is limited or non-existent. Thus its most logical application is in rebuilding war torn villages, in housing in under-developed countries, and for human use in rural, native or jungle environments.

Disaster Recovery

• Disaster Recovery College Course material (400 pages) from FEMA can be downloaded from http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/collegecrsbooks.asp.

• Handbook for Reconstructing after Natural Disasters (GFDRR)

Relief Organizations With Engineering Component

• Red Cross
• Registered Engineers in Development Relief (RedR)
• United Nations ReliefWeb