BY LORETTA B MANELE
At the moment, there is no champion that oversees the governance of water and oversight of it is however spread among key stakeholders says Stephen Attallifo Mosese, Solomon Water’s Catchment Officer.
He was speaking at the 16th Water and WasteWater Association Conference and Expo 2025 on Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at the Aquatic Centre.
Mosese explained that there are key agencies that have a legislative role or governance role that encompass water resource governance.
He said for instance, there is the Ministry of Mines’ Water Division that oversees policy, Ministry of Environment that looks after Environmental protection, Ministry of Lands that takes care of some areas, Ministry of Health that sets health standards and the Ministry of Forestry that issues milling and logging license.
“So, you can see this is a highly fragmented governance set of arrangements that are currently in place. We have overlapping responsibilities and coordination,” said Mosese.
He added that they also have limited devolution of authority which means that in Solomon Islands there is the provincial and local councils that are not empowered because they lack resources.
In this regard, Mosese said to resolve the fragmentation in governance, the national government is working on the Water Resources Bill.
He also stated that this bill will replace the 1996 Water Rivers Act which is outdated and lacks provisions and support to address reality issues.
“We will have coordination and connectivity amongst leaders of governance, national, provincial, local water boards and importantly, it will also address water issues. And, this has been a long-standing issue,” said Mosese.
He furthered that this bill aims to resolve this problem and importantly it is based on international frameworks such as the Integrated Water Resource Management Principles.
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