Climate change doesn't stop at a border. A cyclone that damages water infrastructure in Vanuatu may expose lessons relevant to a utility in Tonga. A non-revenue water challenge in Solomon Islands may look remarkably familiar to a utility manager in regional Australia.
Across the Asia-Pacific, water professionals are confronting many of the same pressures: climate uncertainty, ageing infrastructure, workforce constraints and growing expectations from the communities they serve. Increasingly, the most effective solutions are not being developed in isolation, they are being shared.
This reality sits at the heart of the Pacific Water Knowledge Exchange Program, a partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Pacific Water and Wastewater Association (PWWA), the Australian Water Association (AWA), Pacific utilities and Australian water sector organisations.
Over the past 12 months, the program has brought together water professionals from Solomon Islands, Tonga, Vanuatu and Australia to learn from one another, strengthen capability and build lasting regional partnerships.
The program was built on a simple premise: some of the most valuable expertise already exists within the region.
While technical assistance and investment remain critical, the experience of utility operators, customer service teams, engineers, managers and leaders working through similar challenges every day is equally valuable. Creating opportunities for those people to connect, share and learn from one another can accelerate progress in ways that traditional training alone cannot.
Over the course of the program, participants explored six priority learning areas identified by Pacific utilities themselves: customer engagement and service delivery, operational performance and non-revenue water reduction, project and financial management, workforce development, climate resilience, and inclusive work practices.
The program began in Honiara, Solomon Islands, during the 2025 PWWA Conference.
Hosted by Solomon Water, the first study tour focused on customer engagement and operational performance. Participants visited customer service centres, operational facilities and field sites, sharing practical approaches to complaint management, billing systems, meter reading, leak detection and non-revenue water reduction. More importantly, they spent time together discussing the realities of delivering water services in Pacific contexts.
The conversations were often as valuable as the formal learning activities. As participants compared experiences, common themes emerged. Limited resources. Ageing infrastructure. Workforce challenges. Growing customer expectations. Climate pressures. Different countries, but often remarkably similar problems.
One participant reflected that the biggest takeaway was simply "knowing the face, putting a name to the face". Another noted that understanding the people behind the challenges creates the foundation for future collaboration.
Those relationships continued to grow through a series of online knowledge exchange sessions delivered throughout the year. Six webinars connected more than 240 participants from across the Pacific and Australia, covering topics including customer-centered service delivery, water quality improvement, workforce development, climate resilience, non-revenue water reduction and utility benchmarking.
The sessions provided practical case studies and operational insights, while also creating opportunities for ongoing conversations and technical collaboration between organisations. In many cases, those conversations continued well beyond the webinar itself.
In March 2026, the program travelled to Luganville, Vanuatu, where participants came together for a second study tour hosted by the Department of Water Resources.
The focus shifted towards climate resilience, operational performance, asset management and customer engagement. Participants spent time in the field, observing infrastructure, working alongside operational teams, and discussing the practical realities of maintaining water services in resource-constrained environments.
One of the most powerful learning experiences came during a live repair activity, where technical staff, managers and customer-facing employees worked together to understand the challenges involved in maintaining critical infrastructure.
For many participants, it reinforced an important lesson: improving water services is rarely about a single piece of infrastructure or a single team. It requires coordination across the entire organisation.
The study tour also challenged participants to think differently about climate resilience.
Discussions highlighted that resilience is not simply about building stronger infrastructure. It is also about strengthening organisational capability, planning processes, workforce development, decision-making systems and community relationships. A resilient utility is one that can prepare for, respond to and recover from disruption while continuing to serve its community.
As climate pressure continues to intensify across the Pacific, this broader understanding of resilience is becoming increasingly important.
No single person or organisation has all the answers, but everyone has something valuable to share.
Solomon Water shared lessons from its customer relationship management systems and non-revenue water reduction efforts. Tonga Water Board contributed insights into asset management and long-term planning. The Department of Water Resources provided valuable perspectives on service delivery in dispersed communities and emerging operational challenges. Australian utilities and industry partners shared practical experiences from their own resilience, customer engagement and operational improvement journeys.
The result was not a one-way transfer of knowledge. Instead, it was a genuine exchange between peers facing many of the same challenges and working towards many of the same goals.
That spirit of collaboration reached its peak at Ozwater'26 in Brisbane, the final in-person activity of the program and an opportunity for participants to bring together a year of learning, relationships and shared experiences.
Throughout the week, participants attended conference sessions, technical workshops, site visits and networking events aligned to the six learning priorities identified at the beginning of the program. Topics ranged from climate resilience and water quality management to workforce development, customer service, project management and inclusive leadership.
Tonga Water Board's Georgina Fonohema presented her research on phosphate intrusion into Tonga's aquifers, while Solomon Water's Lucy Habu shared her experiences of inclusive leadership development. Department of Water Resources Manager Projects and Operations Erie Sami contributed insights on the realities of climate and disaster impacts in Vanuatu, helping shape discussions on resilience and adaptation.
Participants also joined colleagues from Australia, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos and Vietnam through AWA's International Stream, a collaborative forum focused on strengthening climate resilience across the region. Rather than traditional presentations, the workshops brought water professionals together to identify shared risks, discuss practical solutions and explore what stronger regional collaboration could look like in practice.
What emerged was a powerful reminder that while utilities operate in different contexts, many are grappling with the same questions.
One Pacific Program participant said: “The challenges we face are shared, and so are the solutions."
How do we prepare for increasingly severe climate events? How do we build and retain skilled workforces? How do we continue delivering essential services with limited resources? And how do we ensure our communities remain at the center of decision-making?
The conversations reinforced that resilience is not built through infrastructure alone. It is built through people, partnerships and the willingness to learn from one another.
One of the most significant outcomes of the week was the development of the Ozwater'26 Asia-Pacific Water Resilience Joint Statement. Developed through contributions from water professionals across the Pacific, Southeast Asia and Australia, the statement captures shared priorities for climate resilience, leadership, workforce development and regional cooperation. Over 70 water professionals contributed to its development, creating a platform for ongoing collaboration and advocacy long after the program concludes.
For many participants, Ozwater highlighted how far the relationships between participants had come since the first conversations in Honiara less than a year earlier. Relationships that began through site visits, workshops and webinars had evolved into trusted professional networks capable of supporting ongoing learning, problem-solving and collaboration across borders.
While the formal activities of the Pacific Water Knowledge Exchange Program have now concluded, the partnerships it created continue.
Participants have already identified opportunities for future collaboration through peer mentoring, technical exchange, communities of practice and ongoing engagement through PWWA and AWA networks. Follow-up activities are underway, including additional support on water safety planning, customer engagement and utility capability development.
Another Pacific Program participant said: “We need long-term programs that develop us. That is what collaboration is.”
The program's most enduring outcome may not be any single workshop, study tour or webinar. It is the growing community of water professionals working together across borders, organisations and disciplines to strengthen water security and climate resilience for the communities they serve.
Interested in learning more about AWA’s International Programs? Take a look here.