Media Release – For Immediate Release, 21st of may 2026
More than 400 remote Australian communities are waiting for safe drinking water right now
The funding exists. The vision exists. The delivery does not. Engineers Without Borders Australia, the Australian not for profit that has spent over a decade working in partnership with remote First Nations communities, is calling on the sector to act now, not next decade.
Acknowledgement of Country
EWB Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia. We pay our respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and ancestors. We know that this land was never ceded. We respect their stories. We respect their wisdom and their knowledge systems. We respect their ongoing, deep connection to land, water and community.
Collaboration is one of EWB Australia’s core values. It shapes the way we work every day. Through the delivery of our Stretch Reconciliation Action Plan, EWB Australia is committed to working in genuine partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We support improved access to engineering, technology and infrastructure. We support the capability of communities to live safely and productively in the Country. We support communities to pursue their own aspirations.
Melbourne, 21st of May 2026, Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) is an Australian non-profit that harnesses the potential of engineering to create an equitable reality for the planet and its people. For more than ten years, EWB has worked alongside remote First Nations communities, from the Lama Lama community at Port Stewart in Far North Queensland to the Wurrenranginy community in Western Australia, on the water, sanitation, energy and infrastructure projects that allow community life on Country to thrive.
Today, EWB Australia is putting a clear position to government, philanthropy, the engineering sector and corporate Australia. The water gap in remote First Nations communities is not closing. Every wet season that passes without delivery is another year of children drinking from systems that fail. Australia has the policies. Australia has the frameworks. What Australia does not have is the mechanism that turns vision into infrastructure on the ground.
The barrier is not resources. It is method. More than 400 communities are waiting right now, and Australia already has the funding, the engineering capability and the goodwill to fix it. What is missing is a model that puts community first and turns policy into delivery. EWB Australia is offering that model, and the country cannot afford another decade of delay.
“The funding is not the problem. The problem is the impact on the ground. There is a lot of funding available, but if all of it is only going into planning or research, then we are not solving the problems of the communities.”
Mihir Joshi, Senior Manager, First Nations Australia Program, Engineers Without Borders Australia
Remote First Nations communities hold the vision for life in the Country. They carry it across generations. They protect it. Governments hold the policies. Philanthropy holds the funding. The engineering sector holds the expertise. Every piece of the puzzle is already here.
Vision and partnership together shape the future forward. Clean water reaches the country when communities lead. Partners walk alongside. Policy, funding, and engineering capability move into service of community priorities. The pieces are ready. The partnership is ready. Now is the moment to scale it.
EWB Australia does not position itself as the solution solely. It positions itself as the catalyst between those who need solutions and those who can provide them. The way that bridge is built matters more than what gets built across it. EWB’s approach is partnership first, project later. Trust is established before infrastructure is designed. Community sets the pace. Engineering follows the relationship, not the other way around.
“Our role is creating a bridge between a solution seeker and a solution provider, in a way that is dignified for the community. The bridging is a larger ecosystem. EWB has an ecosystem of universities, students, volunteers, the engineering sector, government, the corporate sector. The idea is: can we channel all of them to provide a solution that is genuinely needed by the community?”
Mihir Joshi, Senior Manager, First Nations Australia Program, Engineers Without Borders Australia
EWB Australia is the catalyst that holds this ecosystem together. One network, working to one community plan, on the community’s terms.
The proof: Lama Lama community
EWB Australia has spent ten years walking alongside the Lama Lama community at Port Stewart, in Cape York, Far North Queensland. In August 2025, a new rainwater system was commissioned, delivering water that complies with the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. Designed using an adaptive planning approach, the system grows as the community’s vision for life on Country grows.
The work is not finished, and EWB does not claim that it is. House connections are still to come. What EWB does claim is that the model holds. The how is real, it is documented, and it is ready to be applied at scale. The next 400 communities cannot afford to wait another ten years for theirs.
More than 400 remote and regional communities are waiting right now. The resources are there. The expertise is there. The model is there. What is missing is a sector willing to put community first and deliver, this year, not in the next strategy cycle.
Engineers Without Borders Australia is calling on government, philanthropy, the engineering sector and corporate Australia to partner with us. Not as a contractor. Not as a consultant. As the bridge between community and the ecosystem of solutions they deserve, and they deserve it now.
Partner with EWB. Build the model. Close the gap.
Safe water. On Country. Now.
For more than a decade, EWB Australia has worked in partnership with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Together, we co-design and deliver water, sanitation and infrastructure solutions led by community priorities.
We now call on government. We call on industry. We call on the broader engineering sector.
Act now. Not next decade.
Match the leadership of First Nations communities with the delivery they have long been promised.
More than 400 remote Australian communities are waiting for safe drinking water right now. Engineers Without Borders Australia recognises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first designers and the first engineers of this continent. They are the custodians of water, land and infrastructure knowledge systems sustained over tens of thousands of years. This recognition is not a statement. It is a practice.
— Ends —
Key statistics
More than 400 remote and regional Australian communities lack access to good quality drinking water (Wyrwoll et al. 2022).
Forty per cent of locations failing health based water guidelines in Australia are remote First Nations communities (Wyrwoll et al. 2022).
References
Wyrwoll, P R, Grafton, R Q, Daniell, K A, Chu, L, Ringler, C, Lien, D, Croke, B, Williams, J & Aulia, A 2022, ‘Decision making for systemic water shocks: Application of a Water Shock Propagation Framework to regional Australia’, Nature Partner Journals Clean Water, vol. 5, no. 32.
CSIRO 2023, Water supply for remote Australian communities, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra. Available at CSIRO — Water supply for remote Australian communities.
CSIRO 2023, Water quality review and treatment technology framework for remote community water supply, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Canberra. Available at CSIRO — Water quality review and treatment technology framework.
About Mihir Joshi
Mihir Joshi is the Senior Manager of the First Nations Australia Program at Engineers Without Borders Australia. He brings more than 20 years of experience in disaster risk reduction and climate resilience to the role. Mihir holds a postgraduate diploma in Earthquake Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and a Civil Engineering degree from M S University. He has led post disaster assessments across South Asia, developed reconstruction strategies in the wake of major disasters, and led a regional network of humanitarian agencies across the Asian region. He has also worked within global humanitarian networks to advance the localisation of disaster risk reduction and response.
Mihir’s depth of experience in disaster, resilience and humanitarian practice underpins EWB’s approach to remote First Nations water access in Australia. The same principles that guide effective post disaster reconstruction, community led decision making, trusted local partnerships, and infrastructure that holds up under stress, are the principles EWB is applying to the systemic delivery gap in remote Australian communities today.
About Engineers Without Borders Australia
Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWB) is an Australian not for profit working to harness the potential of engineering to create an equitable reality for the planet and its people. Our vision is a world where technology benefits all. Our mission is to redefine the purpose and impact of engineering practice as a critical enabler of sustainable development.
EWB works across education, partnerships and community development, walking alongside remote First Nations communities in Australia and communities across the Asia Pacific region, so that no one is left behind.