Not rated — no significant reservoirs
Kiribati 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
Kiribati Reservoir Transparency
N/AWhy it's not rated
No surface reservoirs: coral atolls with no rivers.
Where its water comes from
Freshwater lenses (Bonriki and Buota) piped by the Public Utilities Board, plus rainwater harvesting.
Reference source
Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agricultural Development (MELAD) / climate.gov.ki
http://www.climate.gov.kiEvaluator notes
Kiribati is among the clearest structural cases in the RTI: an atoll archipelago with zero surface reservoir capacity and therefore zero reservoir data transparency to evaluate. The physical geography is decisive — coral atolls averaging less than 2 metres above sea level cannot retain surface water catchments. The nation's sole managed freshwater source is the thin brackish-threatened freshwater lens on South Tarawa (Bonriki and Buota), supplemented by rainwater harvesting promoted by UNICEF and the Kiribati government as drought resilience. Kiribati faces one of the world's most acute water-security situations. The Bonriki lens is contracting under sustained groundwater abstraction and is vulnerable to salinisation from storm surges and sea-level rise. World Bank-funded Kiribati Adaptation Program phases (KAP I-III) have invested in groundwater monitoring, but the resulting data remains within development-bank and research-institution systems rather than public portals. In February 2026, Kiribati joined an expanded Pacific regional water security partnership coordinated by SPC. Until this or similar programmes deliver accessible national monitoring infrastructure, RTI scores will remain at structural zero. The country's English-language government infrastructure means that any data, if published, would be internationally accessible immediately.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0