Sphere Water Standards in a Camp: Litres, Quality and Distance

Tony Miller
Aug 19
4 min read

Sphere sets the camp water floor at 15 litres per person per day, a water point no further than 500 metres from any dwelling, and queuing of no more than 30 minutes. Water must carry 0.2 to 0.5 mg/L free residual chlorine at a turbidity of 5 NTU or below.

How many litres of water per person per day does Sphere require?

The minimum survival water standard is 15 litres per person per day for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene, set out in Sphere Handbook 2018, WASH Water Supply Standard 2.1. The Sphere/IFRC WASH standards summary puts basic needs in a 7.5 to 15 litre band, with 15 litres as the figure to plan against.

Treat 15 litres as a floor, not a design target. WHO Technical Note No. 9 (2013) sets roughly 20 litres per capita per day as the minimum for essential health and hygiene, and UNHCR plans displacement water supply at 20 litres per person per day, excluding leakage. Size a scheme at exactly 15 litres and the first pump failure, leaking tapstand or population influx drops the site below standard. Size the source, storage and distribution at 20.

How far can a water point be, and how long should people queue?

No more than 500 metres from any dwelling, and no more than 30 minutes of queuing, under the Sphere/IFRC WASH standards. Both figures are behavioural rather than administrative. When the walk lengthens or the queue slows, households collect less and top up from unprotected surface water, which is the failure mode that seeds an outbreak. Measure both weekly, and treat a lengthening queue as an early warning that the source, not the tapstand, needs work.

How many people per tap or hand pump?

Sphere caps water-point loading at three ratios, each tied to an assumed flow rate:

250 people per tap, at a flow of 7.5 litres per minute
500 people per hand pump, at 17 litres per minute
400 people per single-user open well, at 12.5 litres per minute

Those maxima come from the Sphere Handbook 2018. The queue rule is won or lost here: a tap serving 250 people only clears in 30 minutes if it is genuinely delivering 7.5 litres per minute, so a throttled pump, a partly blocked line or low storage head breaches the standard long before population growth does.

What water quality does Sphere require?

Free residual chlorine of at least 0.5 mg/L after 30 minutes of contact at pH below 8 at the treatment point, and at least 0.2 mg/L at the point of delivery, with turbidity at or below 5 NTU and zero faecal coliforms per 100 ml, per the Sphere/IFRC WASH standards. Turbidity comes first in practice, because chlorine will not reliably disinfect cloudy water, which is why flocculant-disinfectant sachets rather than tablets are the right choice on turbid river or flood water. Both sit in the SLS WASH product range.

What does Sphere require for household storage?

At least two clean water collection containers of 10 to 20 litres per household, narrow-necked or covered to prevent recontamination during carriage and storage, again per the Sphere/IFRC WASH standards. Containers are the most commonly under-budgeted line in a camp water programme, and an open bucket undoes a compliant tapstand within hours.

Frequently asked questions

How many litres of water per person per day does Sphere require in a camp?

15 litres per person per day for drinking, cooking and personal hygiene, under Sphere Handbook 2018, WASH Water Supply Standard 2.1.

How far can a water point be from a dwelling?

No more than 500 metres, with queuing of no more than 30 minutes, per the Sphere/IFRC WASH standards.

How many people can one tap or hand pump serve?

A maximum of 250 people per tap at 7.5 litres per minute, 500 per hand pump at 17 litres per minute, and 400 per single-user open well at 12.5 litres per minute, per the Sphere Handbook 2018.

What water quality does Sphere require in an emergency?

Free residual chlorine of at least 0.5 mg/L after 30 minutes of contact at pH below 8, at least 0.2 mg/L at delivery, turbidity at or below 5 NTU and zero faecal coliforms per 100 ml, per the Sphere/IFRC WASH standards.

Should I design a camp water system to 15 or 20 litres per person per day?

Design to 20. UNHCR plans displacement water supply at 20 litres per person per day excluding leakage, and WHO Technical Note No. 9 sets around 20 litres per capita per day as the minimum for essential health and hygiene.