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Sound waste and pollution management is an urgent priority for our Pacific Island leaders – ours here at SPREP is just to “Make it Happen.”

This form is to be used by all stakeholders seeking support from PacWastePlus programme. They are required to provide detailed information using this form.

A guide to identify three core waste streams icons associated with the PacWastePlus programme

This guideline provides the visual identity of the PacWastePlus programme. It establishes the the basic design principles to be applied to the PacWastePlus range of communication products, including publication

This guideline provides a guide on using the PacWastePlus programme logo correctly. Contents of this document must be observed whenever PacWastePlus staff, external partners or stakeholders communicate on behalf of the programme or its related activities. It should be used in conjuction with the PacWastePlus Communciations and Visibility Plan, Communications Guideline for Countries & Partners, and the PacWastePlus Branding Guidelines.

Access to safe drinking water is a basic need and is one of the most important contributors to public health and to the economic health of communities. Pacific island countries have yet to overcome the challenge of providing a safe and adequate supply of drinking water to its populations. Infectious, waterborne diseases, such as Typhoid and Cholera and newly emerging pathogens are a major cause of morbidity and mortality within the Pacific region. The World Health Organization (WHO) report that about 2 million people in the world die each year due to diarrhoeal diseases, most of them are children less that 5 years of age. The worst affected are the populations in developing countries. Lack of access to safe drinking water is one of the main contributors to this situation. Traditional approaches that rely on sampling and testing water have failed to achieve extensive improvement in access to safe drinking water. Pacific island countries are committed to achieving targets specified in the Millennium Development Goals (2000), including halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015. A new strategy is now being promoted globally that is based on risk management principles – drinking water safety planning.

The importance of safe drinking water for health and development in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) has been reflected in many regional action plans and policies. Through the Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management (Sigatoka, Fiji, 2002) Pacific Island Countries outlined actions that were needed to achieve sustainable water management through collaborative efforts by water sector authorities and inter-sectoral partners. The WHO workshop on Drinking Water Quality Standards and Monitoring in Pacific Island Countries (Nadi, Fiji, 2005) developed a Framework for Action on Drinking Water Quality and Health in Pacific Island Countries, designed to support the implementation of drinking water quality actions envisioned in the Regional Action Plan. The Pacific Island Countries embraced the Water Safety Plan concept during the workshop and this was reflected in the Regional Framework. It was recommended that PICs should use Water Safety Plans to better manage their water supplies to ensure safe quality drinking water for Pacific communities.

Flooding imposes significant costs on households and businesses located in the lower Vaisigano catchment area. SOPAC, under the European Development Fund (EDF) project Reducing Vulnerability of Pacific ACP States, has worked with the Government of Samoa to develop the Samoa Flood Management and Action Plan, which identifies actions for government agencies, the private sector, NGOs and communities responsible for flood and floodplain management that can assist in reducing flood risks in Samoa, particularly in the lower Vaisigano catchment area located in Apia, which is subject to frequent flooding.

This proposal has been prepared by the Ocean and Islands Programme (OIP) within the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in collaboration with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). It has been prepared in response to an invitation1 from the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to assist the Cook Islands in deriving coastal related information to underpin and inform climate change adaptation decisions for coastal areas of Mangaia Island.