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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.

These goals are a big challenge to small Pacific Islands Countries with their small land masses, remote locations and small but rapidly growing populations making them vulnerable. Vanuatu shares these and other challenges to sustainable development. In Vanuatu real GDP per capita is still lower than in the 1980s, infrastructure is poorly developed, the population is rapidly growing at 2.6% per year, water resources are declining and in many places contaminated, and household water supplies are inadequate or absent. The country's capital and human resources are stretched and a better forward is needed.

The Solomon Islands is characterised by scattered islands that vary considerably in size, physical and hydrologic characteristics. The types of islands range from high volcanic to tiny low coral atolls. The higher islands have river systems whilst the low coral atolls have no natural surface water systems and are completely dependent upon rainwater catchments and groundwater.

The structure of this diagnostic report follows the outline of the Pacific Regional Action Plan on sustainable Water Management (Pacific RAP) arranged over six thematic areas of water resources management, island vulnerability, awareness, technology, institutional arrangements and financing, preceded by a general chapter on relevant background information on Tonga.

The economic and social wellbeing of Pacific Island Countries are dependent upon the quality and quantity of their freshwater. Constrained by their relative small size, natural vulnerability, and limited human and financial resource base, Pacific Small Island Developing States face specific challenges to effectively manage their water resources.

Small Pacific Island countries (PIC) rely heavily on the freshwater resources. However, due to the small land masses of many PICs, most of the freshwater sources are under pressure from overuse and/or pollution leading to deteriorating water quality due to urbanisation, economic development, and population growth. The pollution of freshwater resources also lend a hand to the pollution of marine ecosystems, which many Pacific Islanders rely on heavily for sustenance. Urbanisation and population increases weigh heavily on wastewater disposal, which impact both fresh and marine water resources.

This report identifies the present status of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in the Fiji Islands and barriers to the more effective implementation of IWRM. Because water performs so many important functions for society, the responsibility for water is always spread among different organisations, public and private, and is located among several government ministries. IWRM is both a set of mechanisms and a process.

There is ongoing and increasing vulnerability of Pacifi c Island nations and communities to the impacts of disasters. This has led to increased national and regional commitments to disaster risk reduction and disaster management on an ‘all hazards’ basis in support of sustainable development. These commitments derive from the Pacifi c Forum Leaders decision in Madang 1995, the Auckland Declaration in 2004 and Forum Communique 2006. This Framework for Action 2005 – 2015 has been developed to respond in part to these commitments