Not rated — no significant reservoirs
Gambia is set aside from the ranking rather than graded. Having no significant reservoir storage is a geographic fact, not a transparency failure — so assigning an “F” would be misleading.
H1 2026 Evaluation
Gambia Reservoir Transparency
N/AWhy it's not rated
No significant surface reservoirs: the Gambia River is undammed.
Where its water comes from
Almost entirely shallow groundwater (NAWEC).
Reference source
Department of Water Resources — Ministry of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters
https://www.mofwr.gmEvaluator notes
Gambia is a structural non-case for reservoir transparency: the country has no significant surface-water storage reservoirs. The Gambia River flows through the narrow country and is navigable without impoundment; national water security depends on shallow groundwater aquifers rather than dams. NAWEC manages drinking water without reservoir infrastructure. There is therefore no RTI-relevant data to evaluate in the classical sense. Despite this, Gambia deserves recognition for being among Africa's most proactive small-state water data publishers. Since 2018 the Department of Water Resources has openly shared groundwater borehole monitoring data through IGRAC's Global Groundwater Information System — an act cited by IGRAC as a model for developing nations. The Government Open Data Strategy 2023–2026 explicitly prioritizes water quality data for public release. This institutional openness earns partial scores on technical_accessibility, methodological_transparency, and language_usability as indicators of what reservoir transparency would look like if reservoirs existed. The overall RTI composite score is near-floor solely due to the structural absence of reservoirs, not due to political opacity.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0