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The Cook Islands comprises 15 islands of which 12 are inhabited. The total land area is 240 square kilometers dispersed over an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 1.8 million square kilometers in the Southern Pacific Ocean. The Cook Islands may be divided into two main geographical regions: Southern Group islands and Northern Group islands. All islands outside Rarotonga (capital of the Cook Islands) are referred to as the Outer Islands. Rarotonga and the Southern Group islands are generally younger volcanic islands, while the Northern Group is low lying coral atolls.

There are 23 UN agencies and conventions concerned with the freshwater resource. Their interests and mandates overlap: it is recognized that there is a need for mechanisms to bring them to common purpose. Until the UN Administrative Committee on Co-ordination (ACC) was abolished in early 2002, its Sub-committee on Water Resources (SWR) provided a co-ordination mechanism

It contains the Waigani Convention which is a convention to ban the importation into forum countries of Hazardous and radioactive wastes and to control the transboundary movements and management of hazardous wastes within the South Pacific Region (1995)

The Pacific Islands are a diverse group of countries with a total population of 6.9 million people who share common features such as nearly all of the countries have relatively small populations and therefore limited domestic markets; most of the countries rely on their agricultural and fisheries and other natural resources for food, employment and exports; there is only limited manufacturing in most of the countries and nearly all dependent on imports for most of their production inputs and consumer products (including processed foods).