Improving water management in the Pacific Islands
Cities Research Institute Environmental Health researchers Associate Professor Cara Beal (Principal Investigator) and Associate Professor Anne Roiko (Co-investigator) are part of an international team in this $1.2M, 3 year DFAT funded project looking at ways to improve the safe and inclusive management of water in rural Pacific Island villages.
Griffith’s International WaterCentre is managing the project (Dr Regina Souter) in collaboration with The University of the South Pacific (Fiji campus in Suva), Solomon Islands National University (Honiara), Habitat for Humanity Fiji (HfHF) and Plan International / Live and Learn Environmental Education (PI/LLEE). See website here.
Sustainable Development Goals
Griffith University is aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is committed to addressing global water-related challenges to ensure a sustainable future where clean water is accessible to all.
Rationale
Rural Pacific Island villages are essentially responsible for looking after their own water supplies, with some initial funding and technical input from govt and NGOs. There is wide agreement that, although there is no better alternative at the moment, the delivery and safe management of drinking and on-drinking water is often poor, and well below SDG targets. Climate change is already impacting on the provision and management of safe water & sanitation in the Pacific now. Uncertainty in rainfall patterns means that climate-dependent water sources are more vulnerable and less secure.
Project approach
Our team at Cities Research Institute and the International WaterCentre, in collaboration with local NGOs and researchers from Solomon Islands and Fiji are investigating ways to better enable rural community-based water management in the Pacific under changing climate patterns. Using local knowledge and building up local skills and capacity can strengthen the resilience of rural villages to disruptions to water and sanitation systems from climate-induced disasters.
Much like our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island remote communities in Australia, the Pacific Island people have inbuilt resilience and a wealth of knowledge around how to manage under times of great stress and we will listen and tap into this more.
Drawing on a truly transdisciplinary team of environmental and social scientists, engineers, anthropologists, environmental and public health experts, we are gathering a breadth and depth of qualitative and quantitative data from 16 villages across 2 countries.
Community Water Management Plus- Phase One Report- Solomon Islands
The latest report from the PacWam project focussing on rural water management in the Solomon Islands has shown that study villages had a range of water resources available but shared water systems were rarely delivering water services that were reliable and available throughout the year. A snapshot of the community water management “plus” factors that influence the overall “success” of a community-managed system have been summarised for the first time (see Table left).
Project partners
Proud to be collaborating with
