Papua New Guinea

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Papua New Guinea is part of:
Asia & Pacific · Australasia · Pacific Islands ·
Water Basins of Papua New Guinea:
Fly · Sepik · Tami · Tjeroaka-Wanggoe ·

Facts & Figures

edit

Capital

Port Moresby

Neighbouring Countries

Indonesia

Total Area

462,840 km²

- Water

9,980 km² (2.16%) / 216 m²/ha

- Land

452,860 km²

Coastline

5,152 km

Population

5,887,138 (12.7 inhab./km²)

HDI^A

0.516 (2007)

Gini Coefficient^A

50.9 (1995)

Nominal GDP^B

$6,363 million

GDP (PPP) Per Capita^B

$4,300

National UN Presence

UNDP, UNHCR, WHO, UNICEF, WB

Land Use^C

- Cultivated Land

8,559 km² (1.89%)

- Arable

2,219 km² (0.49%)

- Permanent Crops

6,340 km² (1.4%)

- Irrigated

km²

- Non cultivated

314,562 km² (98.11%)

Average Annual Rainfall^D

3142 mm

Renewable Water Resources^E

801 km³

Water Withdrawals^F	0.071 km³/yr
- For Agricultural Use	1%
- For Domestic Use	56%
- For Industrial Use	42%
- Per Capita	90 m³

Population with safe access to
- Improved Water Source	39%
- Urban population	88%
- Rural population	32%
- Improved Sanitation	44%
- Urban population	67%
- Rural population	41%

References & Remarks

^A UNDP Human Development Report

^B CIA World Factbook and Wikipedia

^C CIA World Factbook Country Profiles

^D Aquastat - FAO's Information System on Water and Agriculture

^E CIA World Factbook

^F Earthtrends

Latest 4 maps for / including Papua New Guinea (more..):

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1 News
2 Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context
3 Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources
4 Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment
5 Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination
6 Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation
7 Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities
8 Articles
9 Projects and Case Studies
10 Publications
11 Who is Who
12 References
13 See also
14 External Resources
15 Attachments

News

Country Profile: Climate, Geography, Socio-Economic Context

Country Profile: Water Bodies and Resources

Country Profile: Legal and Institutional Environment

Country Profile: Water Sector Coordination

See Sector coordination sub-page for detailed description

Country Profile: Trends in Water Use, Management and Sanitation

Country Profile: Challenges and Opportunities

The overriding challenge in most situations is to deliver water at the right quantity and quality for a given use. In rural Papua New Guinea, only 20% of the population have access to an improved water supply which includes public standpipes, boreholes, protected wells or springs. For the rest of the population, water is directly taken from the source. In the urban areas which Papua New Guinea Waterboard services, 91% have access to treated and reticulated water but only 60% of these households get piped water directly into their houses.

While the water resources available in a catchment is initially subject to natural climatic and geophysical conditions, various land uses and waste disposal linked to population growth is also affecting the capacity to supply in terms of quantity and quality to cater for ranges of water uses.

Currently, there are few catchments that are directly accessible to the main urban towns and cities in Papua New Guinea. The development of these sources to sustain the demand is difficult with settlers settling in critical areas like at headwaters causing concern for pollution to the original source etc. Landuses such as agriculture, cultivating crops that consume more water deprives other users to benefit from the same source. Catchments such as Laloki (proposed demonstration site), Wahgi and Bumbu are over stressed with poor quality yields and high demand from various users.

Additionally, there no proper catchment management plans that would dictate the landuse type in the area and equally distribute water resources. The constant increase in population has pushed communities and settlements to move into catchments that could not support different agricultural landuses causing stress to environment and water resources. Clearing of riverbanks are causing increasing erosion and depositing them into waterways.

The other main concern is to develop a policy to regulate activities within critical catchments and provide for equal distribution of the resources to all users.