Articles

Access to safe water in the disaster zone has a definitive impact on the health of the affected population. For that reason operating plans developed in the preparedness stage should be put into motion. This first of all requires a damage assessment and needs analysis (DANA) of water and sanitation systems.

The DANA will be used to make a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the functioning and operability of systems and services, and to define measures needed for the systems’ rapid recovery, as well as possible ways of providing alternatives to the affected population while service is recovered.

From the public health perspective, urgent measures should be put in place to reduce the exposure of the population at refuge sites to risk factors for their health, namely:

• Timely evaluation to determine conditions where people are living, to ascertain needs, and to take necessary corrective action.
• Acting to guarantee a safe water supply and basic environmental sanitation.
• Organizing the community at the refuge so that it assumes responsibilities for operating the site.
• Health care in the form of primary care, preventive medicine, surveillance of communicable diseases, and health promotion.
• Mental health: detection and early care of mental health problems.