The ACT recorded its best year of water quality in 2022 according to the latest Catchment Health Indicator Program (CHIP) report from the Environment, Planning and Sustainable development Directorate’s (EPSDD) Waterwatch program.
Celebrating the results, the Minister for Water, Shane Rattenbury said the report by Upper Murrumbidgee Waterwatch, showed the best water quality results in the Program’s nine-year history.
Mr Rattenbury said the 2022 CHIP report was based on the results of 2,000 surveys conducted by over 200 volunteers at 237 sites across the ACT region.
“Thanks to La Niña conditions for a third consecutive year, heavy rainfall on the already saturated landscape produced constant runoff and high water flows throughout 2022,” Mr Rattenbury said.
“Although the heavy rain and continuous, high flowing water has resulted in our highest water quality scores in recent memory, this has contributed to an increase in streambank erosion across the ACT region, with soil and other materials washed off the bank and swept away downstream,” he said.
“This was especially the case in urban and rural areas with low numbers or diversity of native vegetation, both in-stream and along the riverbanks.”
Mr Rattenbury said this highlighted the importance of restoring the ACT’s urban and rural waterways to protect waterway health, restore biodiversity and make waterways more resilient to extreme weather conditions.
He said results from the annual Platypus Month surveys were also highlighted in the report, with 21 individual platypus sighted over August 2022
“This is 10 less than were recorded during the same period in 2020 and is likely a consequence of high flows disrupting platypus feeding behaviour,” the Minister for Water said.
