Download the tips...
There's things you can do at home, at work, at school and at play to improve the health of our waterways... See all the tips here
How your family can help
Do you wash your car in the driveway? Why not wash it on the lawn or take it to a carwash?... Read more tips on what you can do around home to keep our waterways clean.
Get your workplace involved
Covering and labelling waste and recycling skips, and locating them away from stormwater drains, helps prevent contaminants from getting into our waterways... Read more tips on what you can do at work to keep our waterways clean.
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- At Home & Play
- At Work
- At School
- Get Involved
- Community Education
and Engagement - Research
- Media and Marketing
- Background & Information
Toi tū te marae o Tangaroa
Toi tū te marae o Tāne
Toi tū te iwi
If we look after the waters and land around us, we will be looked after in turn.
Latest update...
Car wash. Save the Whitebait mate!
On Saturday 28th of April the University of Canterbury Campus made for a great location for our successful Stream/River health awareness car wash event. Read more...
Use your brain, not the drain!
Find out how to responsibly use and dispose of your paint: Listen to the radio adverts.
Quantifying the impact of car washing on water quality and assessing simple treatment strategies
Download the report [PDF 1.94MB]
Research available on stormwater contamination
Download the Getting the stormwater message across report [PDF 2.79MB]
All the stormwater from Christchurch City's roofs, roads, driveways, footpaths and car parks flows down gutters and drains into a series of underground pipes and open waterways, our stormwater network.
This water eventually flows into one of our City's rivers, the Avon River/Ōtākaro, Heathcote River/Ōpāwaho, Halswell and Styx Rivers, the Estuary/Ihutai and Brooklands Lagoon and eventually out to sea.
Most stormwater doesn't get treated at any point on its way to the rivers, so whatever goes down the drain generally goes into the rivers.
The Stormwater Cycle [PDF 260kB]
The Improving Urban Waterway Health programme (formerly known as River Guardians) aims to improve the health of Christchurch's rivers and streams.
The goal is for Environment Canterbury, the Christchurch City Council and the community to work together to get involved and create healthier waterways for Christchurch residents.
Research is well underway to establish what is affecting the health of these waterways and what might be done to improve the quality of them, but rather than wait for results, there's things we can do now at home, at work, at school and at play, that can help achieve this goal.