A team of water treatment engineers from the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation will be Palau for two weeks beginning Feb. 7 to assist the Palau Public Utilities Corp., according to Doug Domenech, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Insular and International Affairs.
Supported by funding from the Office of Insular Affairs, the team's work will include assessing the existing conditions at 16 water treatment facilities throughout Palau.
“Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, when representing President Trump at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu announced this water project,” Domenech said. “This is another example of the administration’s commitment to the people of Palau and the importance of the relationship between the United States and Palau under the Compact of Free Association.”
"The Bureau of Reclamation has a long history of sharing its water expertise throughout the world," said Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman. "I am excited for our engineers to work with the people of Palau to help them assess their water treatment challenges.”
Funding for this project was provided through the Office of Insular Affairs and first announced in October 2019. Similar water and utility projects will also be supported in the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands with expertise and support from Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced this project at the Pacific Islands Forum Partners Dialogue in Tuvalu last August as part of the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy in the Pacific.