H1 2026 Evaluation
Brunei Reservoir Transparency
F2Opaque — Ranked #141 out of 167 countries
weight 30%
weight 20%
weight 15%
weight 13%
weight 10%
weight 8%
weight 5%
Primary source evaluated
Dimension breakdown
Data Availability
20% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: Brunei operates two significant water-supply reservoirs: Benutan (45 Mm³ capacity, Tutong river) and Ulu Tutong Golden Jubilee Dam (100 Mm³, commissioned 2017). The Department of Water Services (Jabatan Air) holds operational data from these reservoirs, including daily rainfall and inflow records used in academic studies, but no public portal publishes current or historical reservoir storage levels. Data availability is effectively zero to the public.
Technical Accessibility
15% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: No public data portal, API, or downloadable dataset exists for Brunei reservoir levels. Researchers have obtained data directly from the Department of Water Services and the Brunei Meteorological Department under individual agreements, but there is no systematic public access mechanism.
Coverage
30% of total score
Methodology v1.3.0 (capacity-weighted). Brunei has approximately 145 hm³ of qualifying national reservoir capacity: Ulu Tutong Golden Jubilee Dam (~100 hm³, commissioned 2017) plus Benutan (~45 hm³ on the Tutong). The Department of Water Services holds operational data internally — academic studies have obtained 2014–2016 daily rainfall and inflow records under bilateral agreements — but publishes no portal, API or downloadable storage dataset. Covered capacity is 0 hm³. Coverage = round(100 × 0 / 145) = 0.
Historical Depth
13% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: Fragmentary historical data exists within government archives and has been shared with researchers (records from 2014–2016 confirmed in academic publications), but no publicly accessible historical time-series is available. Depth cannot be verified independently.
Update Frequency
10% of total score
No public updates of any kind are published. Operational monitoring is conducted internally but not disclosed to the public on any schedule.
Methodological Transparency
8% of total score
Coverage is 0 (no national reservoirs >10 hm³ with public data). Quality dimensions for the COVERED subset are therefore 0 by definition. Original notes preserved below: The Water Supply Act (1968) establishes the legal framework for water extraction licensing. Routine water quality testing is conducted but methodology for storage-level measurement is not publicly documented. Some insight into data collection methods appears in academic literature based on researcher-obtained data.
Language and Usability
5% of total score
Brunei's official languages are Malay and English, and most government portals including water.gov.bn provide content primarily in Malay. English-language documentation exists in some contexts (Water Supply Act is accessible in English), but the principal water services web presence is not designed for international users.
Evaluator notes
Brunei is an oil-rich micro-state on Borneo with a genuine reservoir infrastructure — the Benutan Dam (45 Mm³) and the much larger Ulu Tutong Golden Jubilee Dam (100 Mm³), completed in 2017, together supply over 195 million litres per day to the Brunei-Muara and Tutong districts via the Department of Water Services. There is no hydropower component; electricity is generated entirely from natural gas. Despite this real reservoir estate, public transparency is essentially nil: no portal publishes storage levels, no API exists, and data access requires institutional agreements with the Water Services Department or Meteorological Department. Academic studies have obtained daily rainfall and inflow records for 2014–2016 from government sources, confirming that data is collected internally, but it is not disclosed. Brunei's RTI score is very low as a result of deliberate opacity rather than structural absence of infrastructure. The country is digitalising its water management (real-time sensor pilots are underway) but none of this has translated into public data access. Brunei is therefore scored differently from the pure structural cases (Barbados, Bahamas, Bahrain): it has reservoirs, it collects data, but it publishes none of it.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0