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Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Post-Emergency Contexts (UNHCR, OXFAM GB)

UNHCR and Oxfam commissioned this study to better understand how emergency WASH services are delivered, and to identify how the provision of infrastructure can lead to sustainable service delivery and a more professional management mechanism. As many humanitarian crises are protracted in nature, emergency WASH services need to be sustained once humanitarian agencies depart. This report aims to review and identify alternative service delivery options, and to provide some pragmatic guidance that can be incorporated into emergency response programmes and tested, evaluated and built on in the future.

UNHCR Urine Diverting Dry Toilet (UDDT) Standard Operating Procedures

Double vault Urine Diversion Dry Toilets (UDDT) can be used as an alternative to pit latrines in refugee camps. They utilise two chambers for faeces, one of which is in use whilst the other is full and drying so that it can be safely disposed of after an appropriate period of time.
These Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were developed by Oxfam under UNHCR’s “Waste to Value” Project, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. They are largely based on UDDTs developed under the Waste to Value Project in Ethiopia. 

Implementing Urine Diversion Dry Toilets in Dolo Addo, Ethiopia (UNHCR, OXFAM GB and CDC, 2014)

The choice of sanitation technology in humanitarian crisis is based on various factors including the terrain, social and cultural norms and agency experience. There is the continued need for humanitarian response mechanisms to factor the environmental impact and sustainability of the technologies used in the provision of safe water supply and sanitation to affected communities. The acceptability of using ecological sanitation technologies such as Urine Diversion Dry Toilets (UDDT) in refugee contexts needs significant exploration. Using refugee camps in Dollo Ado as a case study, this paper outlines how the UDDT technology has been implemented in the context of protracted refugee camps, the successes and the areas needing further exploration to make it better able to be adopted across various refugee programmes and contexts.