About Us

The Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA) is a not for profit organisation and was established in 1994 to support the Pacific region in meeting all water challenges both at the national and regional level.  From voluntary membership that brought together utilities and people dedicated to bringing Pacific water issues to the fore, PWWA grew over time to an established regional organisation with its permanent Secretariat established and recognized in 2017, following some dynamic reforms.  Its main headquarter is in Samoa with 4 full time staff including the Chief Executive Officer.  Modernizing PWWA, building its governance structure and establishing its permanent Secretariat would not have been possible without the tremendous assistance of its partners – the Australian Water Partnership (AWP) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB). 

Assistance from its partners enabled the PWWA to host an annual conference over the past 11 years which event has been important for its membership to bring together water issues and solutions for individual member states. More importantly, programme assistance from its partners have been instrumental in developing and building the capacity of its member utilities human resources and helped catalyse other events and activities that provide a forum for strategic discussions of global issues and providing a forum for building leaders of the futures in the water sector of the Pacific. The Pacific Water Ministers is a product of PWWA and was established as a part of the Annual conference in 2015.  Likewise, its flagship Young Professionals Programme which started in 2017 with assistance of AWP has been a huge success.

The Association now consists of 31 water utility members from 21 countries in the Pacific.  Its goal is to serve as the principal water and wastewater voice of and for the Pacific Island nations; and to develop expertise in the Pacific for the sustainable management of water and wastewater services by shaping a cohesive, proficient and robust water and wastewater sector.

The PWWA realises the importance of working together in sustainable and durable partnerships to address issues affecting the region’s water and wastewater sector, and sharing best practices on the effective and efficient management of water resources and infrastructure has been the focus in the last couple of years.  This is a collective effort by the pacific water sector to contribute and to ensure targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in particular SDG-6 are being closely monitored and achieved.

Further to this, PWWA through its annual Pacific Water Ministers Forum, will advocate for regional priorities in the water and sanitation sector to the Pacific Forum Leaders, both as a region and as sovereign states.  It is also a way to strengthen linkages between the work of PWWA and the Framework for Pacific Regionalism and related regional developments in the sector so that it adds value to its collective work.