2. State of Freshwater Resources in the Pacific

The Pacific, and the larger Oceania region, includes countries and territories that are highly diverse not only in terms of natural freshwater resources availability and access but also in terms of the capacity to manage available water resources. Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) have generally limited freshwater resources. They are highly diverse in terms of culture and hydrogeography yet share a set of common challenges: small land area, limited groundwater and aquifer capacities, and high dependence on rainfall (Allen 2020; Falkland and White 2020). PICTs also have limited institutional and technical capacity to ensure access to water for everyone. Unlike the PICTs, Australia and New Zealand, the two developed nations of Oceania, have larger amounts of freshwater resources per capita, and also have advanced water management systems.

For a large oceanic region with numerous small islands and advanced economies like Australia and New Zealand, generalizing the state of freshwater resources is challenging, especially when comparable and recent data are limited for PICTs. Focusing on PICTs, this chapter aims to provide an overview of water resources, covering four key aspects: freshwater sources (supply), types and trends in demand on these resources (demand), existing and emerging threats to freshwater resources and water security (threats), and the effectiveness of efforts to achieve water security (responses). We draw on publicly available literature, key informant interviews, and global and regional databases.

The three main forms of naturally occurring freshwater in Oceania are rainwater, surface water and groundwater. The distribution of freshwater is highly uneven among Australia, New Zealand, and PICTs (see Table 2.9 in Appendix 1). Although Australia is the driest inhabited continent on the planet, it is using less than 6% of renewable water resources each year (Prosser 2011; Jackson et al. 2017). New Zealand has abundant water resources with only 3% of its freshwater being used (World Bank 2021). Unlike these two advanced economies, PICTs have limited freshwater resources in general, with Fongafale islet in Tuvalu and Nauru, for example, having no confirmed accessible freshwater resources (Duncan 2011). Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an exception with 120,000 m³ of water per person. Geographic features such as island area, shape, topography, soils, and lithology greatly influence both the occurrence and distribution of natural freshwater sources (Falkland and White 2020). Geologically, the PICTs are a combination of five main forms, namely high volcanic, uplifted limestone, low-lying coral island and atolls and mixed combinations of these forms (Duncan 2011) (see Fig. 2.1). The larger, mountainous volcanic islands have substantial surface water and groundwater resources, while the small, low-lying coral, sand and limestone islands have very limited surface and groundwater (Falkland and White 2020).

A map of the P I C T regions marked with hydrogeological island types. The legends are low carbonate, limestone, volcanic, composite, and complex. The complex is high in the eastern half of New Guinea. Low carbonate is widely spread out in major areas.

Water demand in Oceania is gradually increasing due to ongoing urbanization, population growth, and expanding economic activity (see Table 2.10 in Appendix 1). While advanced economies are able to meet most of the water demand, in the case of PICTs, about 6.9 million people cannot access improved sanitation and more than 4.8 million cannot access improved water supplies (WHO 2016). Improvements have been slow, with improved sanitation increasing from 29% in 1990 to 31% in 2015, and improved water sources from 46% in 1990 to 52% in 2015 (WHO 2016).

Most PICTs are urbanizing rapidly (Keen and Barbara 2016), with growing informal settlements (ADB 2016; Sanderson and Bruce 2020). Urban centres are generally supplied by public water utilities which are slowly improving their capacity to supply clean water and safely treat wastewater. Private water service providers are infrequent but are emerging as a key player as in the case of Port Vila, Vanuatu (SOPAC 2007b; UTS 2011).

All too often urban water supply can be unreliable, of limited availability, suffer leaks and illegal connections, be contaminated, and not generate adequate revenue for asset maintenance (Duncan 2011; Allen 2020). This issue is particularly challenging as informal communities in urban and peri-urban areas are the fastest growing communities in PICTs, with population growth rates of up to 26% per year, for example in some Honiara informal settlements (World Bank et al. 2015). A unique form of village cities has physically developed around a patchwork of native and traditional villages on customary land, creating a mosaic of towns and native and traditional villages (ADB 2016). The rapid rate of urbanization and growth of informal communities pose a profound challenge to providing services and building overall community resilience (Sanderson and Bruce 2020). Populations settling on and around water reserves are a major threat to water quality and quantity due to the lack of regulation for protecting water sources either from pollution or over-abstraction. Increasing urbanization is occurring on islands already water stressed such as Fongafale (Tuvalu), Tarawa (Kiribati) and Majuro and Ebeye (Marshall Islands). Port Moresby, PNG, with a population nearing one million, has a water supply designed to supply about 250,000 people. Honiara, Solomon Islands, is another example of urbanization stressing water supply, growing at more than twice the national population growth rate (preliminary 2019 census data indicates that the average annual growth rate in Honiara between 2009 and 2019 was about 5.6%).

Water quality is a major challenge in urbanizing areas of PICTs. Typically, about 10% of all deaths of children less than five years old in the Pacific islands are attributable to diarrheal diseases. About 90% of these diseases can be attributed to the lack of sanitation treatment systems, high levels of unimproved drinking water, and poor hygiene (WHO and SOPAC 2008), although the overall health impacts may be significantly higher with an indirect influence of these risk factors on many other causes of death.

In rural and remote areas, accounting for 70% of the population, collecting and storing drinking water from rain or local surface sources is an ongoing individual, family, and/or community task and disproportionately the responsibility of women and girls. Here, buying bottled water for drinking and food preparation is not an option due to lack of funds and/or local availability of bottled water (Anthonj et al. 2020).

Rural water supply systems are often managed by village or island councils or community ‘water committees.’ In some cases, such as village water supply schemes in Tonga, a small fee is charged to households to cover operational expenses (Falkland and White 2020). Across the Pacific, water utilities often have no commercial incentive to extend services to informal or remote settlements.

Australia’s water consumption is dominated by the agricultural sector which uses 50% (Jackson et al. 2017). The regional distribution of use is highly uneven across Australia. Despite being a water-rich country, New Zealand’s largest cities face water scarcity because of an increasingly variable climate, aging infrastructure, and growing populations (Talbot-Jones et al. 2020).

Freshwater in the Pacific is becoming increasingly limited because of increasing demand (e.g., population growth and tourism) and decreasing supply (e.g., pollution and precipitation patterns) (UNESCO and UN Water 2020). Drinking water and sanitation coverage in most PICTs falls short of global averages (Hadwen et al. 2015). Sea level rise and extreme events related to climate change have significant additional impacts on water security (UNGA 2014). Exacerbated by weak governance, Pacific countries are amongst the most vulnerable in the world to disasters, which are becoming more intense and more frequent (Kumar et al. 2020).¹⁰ Climate change impacts and threats are covered in more detail in Chaps. 5 and 11.

PICTs face intensifying challenges to achieve adequate access to sanitation and safe drinking water, protect sensitive ecosystems, and generate productive use of variable water resources (Duncan 2011; Gheuens et al. 2019). These challenges require innovative approaches and tailoring of solutions to the complex combination of geographical and socio-economic constraints of individual islands. Despite being a global hotspot of water insecurity, ADB (2020a, b) shows some positive trends in water security from 2013 to 2020 (Table 2.8).

Some innovative solutions are offering new ways for Pacific communities to enhance their water security and resilience (Poustie et al. 2016) and self-sufficiency. Water sensitive cities’ principles are being trialled as part of the RISE (Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments) program in Fiji whereby local solutions are being integrated with broader water resource management to improve public health (CRC-WSC 2020). New water filtering technologies are increasing effectiveness and decreasing costs of local treatment (Allen 2020).

In a significant regional policy commitment made in 2014 and known as Samoa Pathway (United Nations 2014), Pacific states committed collectively to:

Despite such clearly articulated policy visions, PICTs face several challenges to achieve SDG 6.

First, the water supply and sanitation challenge is particularly difficult for rural and remote communities that account for 70% of the region’s population. Informal urban settlements often have poor sanitation facilities, and water quality alongside high population densities. Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services remain inadequate in hospitals of the Pacific (Mannava et al. 2019). According to UNICEF (2020), PNG lies at the bottom of all Pacific countries in water and sanitation ranking, with over 6,000 diarrheal deaths per year.

Second, the problems of water management and policy are rooted in some of the unique socio-cultural dynamics of the region: (1) coexisting formal and informal governance types, (2) customary land tenure and attitudes toward land and water ownership, (3) tensions between urbanizing societies and the traditional values of subsistence communities, (4) a lack of trust in the capacity of institutions to provide core services, and (5) traditional gender roles related to water collection. Most PICTs lack gender disaggregated data and policy response (Michalena et al. 2020). Water governance is often centralized, focused within a few government agencies, with limited coordination between agencies, communities, and the private sector. National water and sanitation regulations are limited in scope or absent, and institutional roles and responsibilities are unclear in many situations. Situations of ‘legal pluralism’ exist wherein indigenous rules come in conflict with the formal state legislations (Roche et al. 2019).

Third, PICTs have high dependency on overseas support, receiving official development assistance exceeding 30% of their GDP (Duncan 2011) (see Table 2.11 in Appendix 1). Private financing of water and sanitation services is limited due to poor cost recovery and a lack of ‘economies of scale.’ Coordination between donors and other international and local organizations is generally weak. A recent assessment of 32 community-based adaptation initiatives across 20 communities in the Pacific suggests a shift towards adaptation that is locally led, with donors and implementers becoming facilitators rather than providing highly prescriptive models (McNamara et al. 2020).

Fourth, the low capacity of the water sector in PICTs remains a critical challenge (Paeniu et al. 2016; Dahan 2018). Many countries have small administrations dealing with the varying complexities of main and outer island issues, without the economies of scale. In addition, most PICTs have very small numbers of trained water resources specialists, and their ability to undertake strategic planning and action is often limited. In a 2007 assessment of IWRM in the Pacific, all the countries identified a lack of water resources expertise and baseline knowledge as being a barrier to informed decision-making related to water management (SOPAC and UNDP 2007). A 2018 report again identified expertise and institutional capacity as the major limiting factors in the water sector in PICTs (Dahan 2018). Hence fit-for-purpose training, as well as increased formal water and environmental education will be an essential component of improving water security in the long term.

Fifth, integration across development, climate change adaptation, and disaster risk management remains weak. For example, in Tarawa, Kiribati, the threat of sea-level rise and drought exacerbates the existing development pressures of rapid urbanization, pollution, and poor sanitation. However, the population of South Tarawa has developed sophisticated strategies for coping with inadequate water supply.¹² Households follow several advanced water scarcity management principles, such as diversification of water resources, fit-for-purpose water use, thrifty water consumption, and adaptive strategies of water use, depending on the local level of water stress. Collectivism and water sharing also play a critical role in reducing affordability challenges, water-related conflicts, and vulnerability to drought.

Sixth, there is inadequate water data collection, infrastructure, data analysis, and reporting to generate action-oriented knowledge to inform decision making in most Pacific countries (Kohlitz et al. 2016; Catchlove et al. 2019). Communication across sectors and between communities and government is often disjointed. Information may also be unavailable due to a lack of data sharing and limited coordination between bodies responsible for water management (Dahan 2018). Data on river health and threats of many islands is incomplete (Bunn et al. 2019). Researchers have also highlighted the need for strengthening local to regional scale information management and knowledge brokering (Morioka et al. 2019).

Countries and territories in Oceania vary greatly in terms of freshwater availability and water security. Of the largest nations, Australia and New Zealand are at an advanced stage of water security; Papua New Guinea, the third largest nation, struggles to ensure water security despite being endowed with plenty of surface and groundwater. The freshwater resources of PICTs are generally limited and highly variable both spatially and temporally. PICTs also face the additional challenges of remoteness, small size, fragility, natural vulnerability, and limited human and financial resources, which continue to inhibit progress with SDG 6, despite having considerable donor support. Climate change is altering long-term rainfall patterns and exacerbating extreme events such as floods, droughts, and cyclones.

Whilst surface and groundwater resources are available on high volcanic islands, they are limited on small, low-lying coral and limestone atolls, giving rise to a greater dependence on rainfall. Available water resources are also subject to multiple threats—untreated human effluent, mine wastes, agricultural chemicals, and sediments from forestry operations. Freshwater lenses are facing saline intrusion from over-exploitation, sea-level rise, and storm surges. The development of water resources for human uses has focused on established urban centres, whilst informal, smaller, and remote communities frequently lack basic water services. Rainwater harvesting, desalination, and bottled water have helped poorer communities in rural areas to meet household water demands.

The future water security of Pacific islands will be determined by the effectiveness of climate change adaptation and disaster risk management, integrated with development efforts. Investment in infrastructure, institutional capacity, and knowledge systems, co-designed in island specific contexts, will be essential. Improved implementation of enabling national policies and legislation, will help mitigate freshwater vulnerability. Sustained capacity development and retention, focusing particularly on gender equality and social inclusion, will have a positive impact across all water related sectors. Enhanced data collection, analysis, and conversion to actionable knowledge will underpin water security.

If access to improved water and sanitation is to be effectively promoted in Pacific island countries, governments must continue to refine policy to ensure good governance and service delivery. A mixture of integrated water resources management, nature-based solutions, and appropriate infrastructure is required to advance SDG 6 across the Pacific region. There is also an opportunity to deepen partnerships and cooperation between advanced water management countries such as Australia and New Zealand and the PICTs.