Clean water is a scarcity in the Darfur refugee camps

The delivery by Oxfam includes badly-needed water and sanitation equipment.

Paid for by the Department for International Development, it is going to Kalma refugee camp in southern Darfur, which houses about 60,000.

"Disease and diarrhoea are serious problems and cholera could break out at any time," said Oxfam's Sarah Lumsdon.

A national appeal to help the black Africans driven from their homes by Arab militias has reached �10m.

People are already dying but we are dreading a cholera outbreak which could kill a lot more Paul Smith Lomas Oxfam

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) says the donations are already being distributed among the nine charities working in Sudan.

The Kalma camp has doubled in size to 60,000 people over the last three weeks and its infrastructure cannot cope with the numbers.

Oxfam is already working locally to build toilets because torrential rains are pushing diseases borne in human excrement around the crowded camp.

"The situation in Darfur is desperate and Kalma camp urgently needs this aid," said Paul Smith Lomas, the charity's humanitarian director.

"People are already dying but we are dreading a cholera outbreak which could kill a lot more.

"This equipment will help us to save lives."

Deadline

The DEC has pledged to get cash from its UK appeal for Darfur to charities on the ground as quickly as possible.

The Red Cross is spending �400,000 on non-food items and last week Save The Children delivered 40 tonnes of supplies, including shelters and medicine.

The DEC is organising the appeal on behalf of the British Red Cross, Cafod, Care International UK, Christian Aid, Concern, Help the Aged, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision and has a target of �27m.

The United Nations has given the Sudanese government 30 days to disarm the Janjaweed militias, accused of widespread atrocities against non-Arab groups.

On Tuesday the government announced plans to double the number of security forces in the Darfur region to 12,000 over the next four months.