Designing a Camp Water Point: Tapstands, Queues and Drainage

Tony Miller

1 day ago

6 min read

A camp water point runs to three fixed numbers: no more than 250 people per tap at a genuine 7.5 litres a minute, no more than a 500-metre walk and a 30-minute queue, and drainage that clears every spilled litre before it pools and breeds disease. Everything else is layout.

How many taps does a water point actually need?

Start from population, not from what fits on the platform. Sphere caps a tap at 250 people, delivering at least 7.5 litres a minute, under the Sphere Handbook 2018. Divide the served population by 250 and round up, then check the number against the maximum flow rate available at peak hours, not the average, because UNICEF's WASH emergency technical guidelines instruct planners to calculate tap numbers from "maximum flow rate at peak hours, and ratio of 250 people per tap", not from a daily average that flatters the design.

Tap hardware matters as much as tap count. The same UNICEF guidelines recommend three-quarter-inch taps over half-inch, because the wider bore survives heavy daily use that snaps the smaller fitting, and setting the tap slightly higher than the tallest jerrycan in use cuts splashing and wasted water. A concrete pedestal roughly 45 cm high, built against the tapstand, lets children and anyone with reduced strength rest a full container halfway up rather than lifting the whole 20 litres in one motion. None of this is decorative. A tapstand that breaks its taps or forces a bad lift loses throughput exactly when the queue is longest.

How does layout, not just tap count, cut queue time?

Demand at a water point is not flat across the day. The same UNICEF guidelines size storage and flow for peak demand of up to 60% of total daily use landing inside four morning hours, so a tapstand sized only to the daily average will queue badly every morning regardless of how the arithmetic looks on paper. Two responses work: more, smaller tapstands spread across the site rather than one large point, and storage sized to a minimum of one day's supply, rising to three days where the source is unreliable, so the peak draws down a buffer instead of the source itself.

Tank size sets tapstand count directly. For a 10,000-litre bladder tank, UNICEF's guidance recommends one to two tapstands carrying six to twelve taps between them, matched to the 250-person ratio above. Spreading that same tap count across two smaller points rather than concentrating it at one cuts the walking distance for half the population and halves the queue at each point, which is the layout lever most site plans skip in favour of simply adding more taps to the point that already exists.

What stops a tapstand becoming a breeding ground for disease?

Every tapstand spills water, and what happens to that spillage decides whether the point is safe. UNICEF's guidelines specify a concrete apron to collect the spilt water, channelled off to a dug soakaway pit filled with large stones, precisely to stop the standing water that "further disease transmission (e.g. of hookworm)" depends on. Sited well, a camp benefits further from a general ground slope of between 1% and 6%, enough to carry surface water away without eroding the apron itself, per the same guidelines.

This is not a cosmetic detail on a site already treated to Sphere's free residual chlorine standard. Cholera killed more than 4,000 people across 45 countries in 2023 according to WHO, and a tapstand that pools contaminated runoff around the exact spot where people fill drinking containers undoes correctly dosed water at the point of collection. Drainage is not an add-on to chlorination; it is the other half of the same control.

How far should the tapstand sit from its storage tank?

Close enough for pressure, far enough to survive contact. UNICEF's construction guidance for bladder and onion tanks recommends siting the tapstand five to ten metres from the tank: close enough to keep a working flow through the pipe run, far enough that the crowd collecting water at peak times does not knock or puncture the tank itself. The tank should also sit at least 1.5 metres above the tapstand wherever gravity feed is possible, which removes a pump and a fuel line from the point most likely to fail under daily wear.

Protection continues after the pipe run. Fence the tank against unauthorised access, dig a drainage trench around the base of the platform to cut erosion, and where the installation is expected to stay in place for any length of time, add a roof to slow UV degradation of the tank material. The Oxfam tanks and bladders carried in the SLS WASH range are specified and stocked in Juba against exactly this kind of installation, so siting and tank selection can be planned together rather than the tank arriving before the site is ready for it.

How do you make a water point safe for women and girls?

Siting a tapstand is a protection decision before it is an engineering one. UNICEF's guidelines are explicit that it is "not just technical issues" that decide where a water point goes: the route people, especially women and adolescent girls, walk to reach it, and their own view of whether that route is safe, has to be part of the siting discussion. Narrow access paths and stepping stones over poorly drained ground are named directly as places where women and girls are harassed while passing, which makes drainage and access design a protection measure, not only a hygiene one.

Lighting carries the same weight after dark. UNHCR's Light Years Ahead programme, launched in 2011 to serve more than 450,000 refugees across seven African countries, was built on the finding that darkness around communal water and washing areas lets crime and assault go unseen, and it funded roughly 200 solar street lights specifically to change that. A design checklist worth keeping from UNICEF's own accessibility audit asks a simple question of every water point: if someone faced harassment while using it, could they get away safely? If the answer is no, the layout needs changing before the taps are commissioned.

Scale makes this more than a single-site concern. Uganda hosts just over 2 million refugees and asylum-seekers, the largest refugee population in Africa, and the great majority live in settlements where this same tapstand layout repeats across dozens of sites rather than being solved once. Getting the siting, drainage and lighting decisions right on the first design pays out every time the pattern is copied.

Frequently asked questions

How many people can one tap serve in a camp?

A maximum of 250 people per tap, delivering at least 7.5 litres a minute, under the Sphere Handbook 2018. Design to the flow rate achievable at peak hours, not the average across the day.

How far apart should a tapstand be from its water storage tank?

Five to ten metres for a bladder or onion tank installation, per UNICEF's WASH emergency technical guidelines: close enough to hold flow through the pipe, far enough that the crowd collecting water does not damage the tank.

What stops standing water from forming around a tapstand?

A concrete apron that collects spilled water and channels it to a soakaway pit filled with large stones, plus a general site slope of 1% to 6% for surface drainage, both specified in UNICEF's WASH emergency technical guidelines.

How much of a camp's daily water demand happens in the morning?

Up to 60% of total daily demand can land inside four morning hours, per the same UNICEF guidelines, which is why storage sized only to a daily average still queues badly every morning.

How do you make a water point safer for women and girls?

Consult women and girls on the route and siting itself, avoid narrow access paths or stepping stones over poorly drained ground where harassment occurs, and light the water point and its access route. UNHCR's Light Years Ahead programme was built on evidence that darkness around communal water areas lets assault go unseen.