Not rated — no significant reservoirs
Nauru 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
Nauru Reservoir Transparency
N/AWhy it's not rated
No reservoirs: a 21 km² raised-phosphate island with no rivers or impoundable terrain.
Where its water comes from
Five reverse-osmosis desalination units (Nauru Utilities Corporation) plus rooftop rainwater.
Reference source
Nauru Utilities Corporation (NUC) — desalination and rainwater supply authority
https://www.commonwealthgovernance.org/countries/pacific/nauru/utilities/Evaluator notes
Nauru is the world's smallest island nation (21 km²) and one of the flattest, making it a clear structural zero for reservoir infrastructure. Water supply is provided by five NUC reverse-osmosis units drawing on seawater, supplemented by household rooftop rainwater collection. Buada Lagoon — the island's only natural surface water — is brackish due to seawater intrusion from surrounding phosphate mining disturbances, and is no longer part of the water supply. A planned reservoir over the Buada depression was referenced in SPC documents but has not been constructed. Nauru's water security is acutely vulnerable to drought: prolonged dry spells can exhaust NUC storage tanks, which are noted to be in varying states of repair. The geology is also compromised by decades of phosphate extraction, which introduces cadmium and other contaminants into groundwater. The RTI framework assigns a near-zero score not as a governance critique but as a factual reflection of a country where the subject infrastructure does not exist.
Evaluated by Jaime Delgado · 2026-09-15 · Methodology v1.3.0