Basic HTML Version
July - December 2013
PETROLEUM DATABASE MOVES FROM GEOSCIENCE AUSTRALIA TO THE
SOPAC DIVISION OF SPC
After spending 35 years in Geoscience
Australia, September 2013 marked the
historical moment for the Secretariat of the
Pacific Community (SPC) when they moved
the Petroleum Database collection of
information to SOPAC, now SPC’s Applied
Geoscience and Technology (SOPAC).
The decision to move the information was
made based on the fact that there was now
appropriate capacity and storage space
available within SOPAC due to the recent
creation and success of the Compendium
Project, a database designed to store and
house archive geoscience data generated
over the past 40 years.
The Petroleum Database is a collection
of datasets pertaining to the petroleum
exploration of the South West Pacific
countries of Papua New Guinea, Solomon
Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. These were
the member countries of the previously
known South Pacific Applied Geoscience
Commission (SOPAC).
All petroleum data that was collected
through exploration by the Commission,
member countries and partners was stored
in various repositories around the world,
creating difficulties for those interested
parties that desired access to this valuable
data.
As a result, the SOPAC Petroleum Database
was set up in 1988 after a decision made
to use funding provided by AIDAB (now
AusAID) to house the information with
Geoscience Australia who would provide
storage and administration for the database.
Today, this invaluable data management
system is housed on site at SOPAC’s
campus where requests are administered
through a collaboration of the Ocean
and Islands Programme, Publications
and Library Unit and the Compendium
Project. This data has now been digitised
and is available as reports, maps and
seismic sections, and petroleum-potential
information.
HARD WORK PAYS OFF FOR PACIFIC WATER RESOURCES
Before 2009, few in the Pacific would have
heard of the concept of Integrated Water
Resources Management or IWRM. Fast-
forward to 2014, and it would be hard to
imagine a Pacific region without IWRM and
its army of passionate advocates.
As 2013 came to a close, hard-working
members of this army gathered in Nadi
to evaluate, celebrate and propagate the
remarkable results achieved in applying
innovative IWRM solutions to some of the
region’s most serious water and sanitation
challenges.
This occurred at the fifth and final Regional
Steering Committee (RSC) of the project,
Implementing Sustainable Water Resources
and Wastewater Management in Pacific
Islands Countries. Since its inception in
2009, the project also known as ‘Pacific
IWRM’ has supported 13 Pacific Island
countries to reduce stress on vulnerable
freshwater and coastal resources,
strengthen the national coordination of
water and sanitation, and reform national
water and sanitation policy and planning.
In that time, the project has become
associated with the can-do attitude of its
team of country demonstration project
managers, demonstrating just what can
be achieved when collaborative efforts are
harnessed from ‘community to cabinet’,
and applied on the ground from ridge-to-
reef.
For these country project managers, it
has been a long, challenging, enlightening
and ultimately fruitful journey – one that
Regional Project Manager Marc Wilson has
IWRM project managers take a break from the busy work schedule of the
Regional Steering Committee
witnessed from the project’s beginning.
‘When you see the progress that country
project managers have made over the
past years, it’s phenomenal,’ he said. ‘The
growth in both personal and institutional
capacity in every country has been on full
display at this RSC.’
‘Project managers have had to really
work to effect change, starting with the
on-ground demonstration projects and
building these up to national policies and
institutional reform by harnessing the
energy of the community, stakeholders and
a whole range of government agencies.’
Regardless of the progress made to date,
the project is now in its busiest period,
with much to be done to finalise project
commitments and prepare for a proposed
next phase, aiming to further progress the
ridge-to-reef concept by linking efforts to
protect freshwater catchments and coastal
resources. To this end, the RSC was used
as a working meeting to carefully evaluate
results and plan for both project closure
and the steps ahead.
The Pacific IWRM project is being
facilitated by the Secretariat of the Pacific
Community’s (SPC) Applied Geoscience
and Technology Division (SOPAC) with the
active support of the World Bank’s Global
Environment Facility and additional backing
from the European Union. More information
can be found, including country results
notes, videos and guidance materials, at
the project’s website:
pacific-iwrm.org.