This document provides guidelines for alternative water services (AWS) and alternative wastewater services (AWWS) to temporary settlements for displaced persons e.g. refugee/internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, for drinking, sanitation and hygiene purposes. It addresses AWS and AWWS principles and methods, operational planning and implementation.

This document provides guidelines for drinking water supply to temporary settlements, and the disposal of wastewater, by implementation of different methods; it does not deal with the ways of using water inside the temporary settlements. This document deals with drinking water quantity but does not provide methods for quality testing. Water quality test methods are included in the scope of ISO TC 147.

The document does make recommendations regarding public safety with respect to the location of distribution and collection points. On-site treatments are not discussed in this document but, depending on circumstances, they can be suitable. In such case, helpful technical guidelines are provided in the bibliography of this document.

This document complements ISO 24527, whose scope excludes drinking water supplied to temporary settlements. It also complements other ISO TC 224's documents such as ISO 24518 and ISO/TS 24520.

This document is intended to be used by the responsible body for the provision of the water service. It can be used by interested parties such as water utilities, governments and governmental organizations, security bodies, international refugee agencies, related NGOs and relevant industry stakeholders.