Improving access to clean water is a key focus of Australia’s aid program to Nauru. Over the past two years, AusAID has provided $1 million to construct 200 household water tanks that will help families store desalinated water and capture rainwater. This means more reliable access to drinking water for Nauruans.

Nauru is one of the smallest nations in the world. To complete a marathon, you would have to run around the entire country more than twice. This small space means capturing enough water for Nauru’s population is a challenge.

PERTH, 14 January 2013 (IRIN) - Human rights groups have strongly condemned conditions at Australia's two offshore processing centres for asylum seekers on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus.

"Conditions are overwhelmingly inadequate, with intolerable physical conditions that seriously add to the mental health problems of detainees," Ian Rintoul, a spokesman for the Refugee Action Coalition (RAC), [ http://www.refugeeaction.org.au/ ] told IRIN.

The monitoring mission found that accommodation conditions were harsh, a fully functioning legal framework was absent, and the capacity to assess refugee claims was inadequate.

MELBOURNE, 30 November 2012 (IRIN) - Activists in Australia have expressed concern over a recent decision by the government to reinstate the processing of asylum seekers offshore.

Amnesty International has found a toxic mix of uncertainty, unlawful detention and inhumane conditions creating an increasingly volatile situation on Nauru, with the Australian Government spectacularly failing in its duty of care to asylum seekers.

Following a three-day inspection of the facility, Amnesty International researchers found the facility totally inappropriate and ill-equipped, with 387 men cramped into 5 rows of leaking tents, suffering from physical and mental ailments-creating a climate of anguish as the repressively hot monsoon season begins.

Australia has sent another group of Sri Lankan asylum seekers home from Christmas Island.

The 50 men arrived in Australia on asylum seeker boats but the Australian Government says they did not make claims that triggered Australia's refugee obligations.

It says the deportations send a clear message, "that people who pay smugglers are risking their lives and throwing their money away".

More than 380 men have been voluntarily and involuntarily sent home to Sri Lanka, since Australia's government resumed offshore processing in August.

Updated 8 November 2012, 12:13 AEST

The Australian Red Cross says it has sent a small team to Nauru to assess whether it needs to send humanitarian observers there.

The Australian Government has been sending asylum seekers to Nauru since September as part of its new offshore processing policy.

For the past week, about 300 people have reportedly been protesting at the detention centre and refusing food.

The Red Cross's Acting Chief Executive Michael Raper says no ongoing observer role has been determined or negotiated by the organisation.

11/05/2012 02:01 GMT

SYDNEY, Nov 5, 2012 (AFP) - Asylum seekers sent by Australia to the tiny island of Nauru entered the fifth day of a hunger strike Monday, vowing to continue their protest indefinitely, refugee advocates said.

The asylum seekers, men mostly from Sri Lanka but also from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq who arrived in Australia by boat, are protesting their detention on the tiny Pacific state where accommodation is basic.

"They talk increasingly actually of the hunger strike being indefinite," refugee campaigner Ian Rintoul told AFP.

Refugee advocates in Australia say asylum seekers on Nauru have told them there will be more protests on the island.

Listen: Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition in Australia says asylum seekers on Nauru are planning more protests on the island. (Credit: ABC)

Last weekend, as many as 400 people took part in a demonstration demanding to be removed from what they referred to as their "island prison".