The IWP for Samoa specifically targets the improvement of freshwater resources in rural communities, which has been identified as a national priority. Freshwater water resources have declined in quality due to adverse impacts from increased land-based activities, which has polluted groundwater in other areas, as well as damaging marine resources with high levels of sedimentation deposited in the sea. The Strategy for the Development of Samoa (SDS) 2002-2004, the national road map for all sectoral programmes implemented by government, highlighted the poor management of water resources. It demonstrated that this has led to serious water quality and quantity problems. SDS stated that water catchment areas are increasingly under threat as a result of efforts to increase agriculture. At the same time, sanitation and waste water management is a key risk to natural resources and environmental health because the existing sewerage systems have damaged the ecosystem of near-shore waters and reefs posing a threat to the livelihood of coastal communities who depend on marine resources for sustenance. The IWP has selected two pilot communities to start its programme on the protection of freshwater resources. It is anticipated that the success of these two communities will become a model for other villages initiating freshwater rehabilitation programmes that can help improve the standards of existing water quality and quantity.
Challenges and Issues
The main challenges affecting Samoa’s freshwater resources include insufficient knowledge and understanding of water resources, poor water quality, and responsible management nationwide. Social and environmental impacts of development proposals, in particular abstractions, are usually ignored. Additional problems include the limited community involvement in water resource management and the degradation of watershed areas, largely through deforestation and land clearance. More awareness on the need to protect watersheds is needed especially with regards to solid waste and sewerage disposal. Programmes should be designed to gauge the level of awareness concerning this issue. Communities need to be consulted fully and given a role of active involvement in the management of water resources. The wise use and protection of water resources should be addressed at the village level through traditional governance mechanisms (village fono/council).
As one of the initial focal areas of GEF, international waters projects help countries to deal with concerns in all types of transboundary water systems, ranging from river basins, lake basins, and groundwater systems, to coasts and large marine ecosystems where most fisheries exist, and also including the open ocean. The GEF plays a catalytic role in helping nations making full use of policy, legal, and institutional reforms and investments necessary to address these complex concerns about transboundary water resources. SGP as a corporate programme of the GEF, implemented by UNDP on behalf of all GEF Implementing Agencies and executed by UNOPS, has funded projects involving communities proximate to threatened waterbodies and transboundary threats to their ecosystems.
The GEF collaborates closely with environmental conventions and agreements. Regional and international waters agreements influence GEF initiatives to protect international waters. Although GEF’s international waters focal area does not serve as a financial mechanism for a specific convention, it is associated with many global and regional conventions that are involved with transboundary water systems, mostly at a regional level. GEF interventions are often associated with adopting regional conventions as a show of the government’s commitment to sustainability after the GEF project ends. Coordination among countries is of much greater importance in this GEF focal area than in others.
The following factors make IW different from other GEF focal areas:
1. There is no single convention like all other Focal Areas
2. A large majority of projects are multi-country
3. Partnerships are key elements to success of IW projects
4. Many have components in other focal areas (focal areas of Biodiversity, Land Degradation, and some POPs)
Because SGP grants are small and are not made to government bodies, SGP’s engagement in the international waters focal area has not involved the participating in SAPs or other arrangements with multiple governments so far. Instead, its international waters projects tend to involve the demonstration of techniques on a small scale to reduce water pollution in a particular transboundary waterbody (such as new methods to reduce pesticide use among farmers) or awareness-raising among community members about the impacts of waste on a waterbody, often accompanied by community activities to clean up waste and improve its management (such as the development of a recycling program). Most projects have involved communities in only one country, although some have promoted coordination with other NGOs and CBOs in other countries bordering a water body. With a few exceptions, for the most part, past SGP international waters projects have not been formally integrated with SAPs or on-going large or medium-sized GEF projects.