Shirley Stream at Quinns Rd, opposite Hammersley Park School. Flows into Avon River.
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.
Background & Information
All the stormwater from Christchurch City's roofs, roads, driveways and parks flows down 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, Heathcote, Halswell and Styx Rivers, the Estuary 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.
Environment Canterbury, the Christchurch City Council and an External Advisory Group have been working together to instigate a public awareness campaign to help restore and protect our waterways for now and the future.
A significant diesel spill took place in the Heathcote River in early 2005. Following the spill the community said it wanted to be involved in the care and management of urban rivers - the Heathcote and the Avon and the streams that flow into them.
The spill led to the launch of River Guardians programme, now known as the Improving Urban Waterway Health programme, with the aim to improve the health of Christchurch's rivers and streams.
The three components of the programme include:
- What are the contaminants in our urban rivers - science investigations will enable us to better understand what contaminates our waterways.
- Pollution prevention and working with businesses to identify issues.
- Public Education - public awareness campaign.
These three programme areas are working in tandem with other Environment Canterbury services such as planning, consents investigation and consents compliance monitoring to deliver an overall targeted programme of work around the health of Christchurch's waterways.
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