For people who have lost their homes and moved intoovercrowded makeshift refugee settlements, often ininhospitable areas with already scarce resources and littleor no infrastructure, keeping clean and healthy becomes adaily struggle. The common surge in death rates amongrefugees in the first days of displacement is largely due tothe lack of clean water and proper sanitation in areas ofspontaneous refugee concentration. The problem is com-pounded by the fact that a person's minimum water needsrise with air temperature, level of exposure and physicalexercise. Even those used to coping with limited amountsof water at home will generally require a larger amountthan usual when living in a refugee camp due to crowdingand environmental factors. Rapid and effective outsideintervention is therefore essential to supply sufficientquantities of potable water, find and protect watersources, organise collection and distribution and set upsanitation systems.