To improve waterway health and provide greater amenity for Canberrans, the ACT Government has provided a significant funding boost to the ACT Healthy Waterways program, committing an additional $14 million through to June 2023.
This brings the total value of the program to $20.5 million since the first stage of Healthy Waterways was completed in June 2021 and advances the ACT Greens election commitment to spend $30M on Healthy Waterways projects.
“We all love the beautiful lakes, rivers and wetlands of our bush capital, and want to keep them healthy,” Minister for Water, Shane Rattenbury said. “This additional $14 million investment in the ACT Healthy Waterways program will help care for our waterways by keeping pollutants from entering stormwater, reducing nutrient loads through infrastructure like wetlands, running education programs and supporting vital research to better understand pollution sources.
“The key focus areas for the next stage of the Healthy Waterways program will be on improving the health of catchments and waterways that supply Lake Tuggeranong to help reduce incidences of algal blooms. This will be done by preventing pollutants from entering water bodies through infrastructure, research and education campaigns, and expanding on community-based programs like The Leaf Collective.
“The continuation of the Healthy Waterways program will deliver positive outcomes for the environment and for community wellbeing, and is part of our plan for a sustainable, resilient and liveable Canberra. I look forward to seeing the new water quality assets that will be built as part of this program, helping to improve waterway health and provide greater amenity for Canberrans.”
The latest round of funding will:
- Allow the construction of 11 new water quality assets across Belconnen and Tuggeranong. New assets will include multiple innovative designs like floating wetlands that remove pollution, expanding the infrastructure options available to ACT water managers to improve water quality. This is in addition to three assets already built since the second stage began in June last year.
- Expand the activities of The Leaf Collective. The community-based program that helps prevent leaves and grass clippings from polluting stormwater will be expanded across Canberra and will continue until June 2023.
- Enable collaboration to reduce fertiliser use. Government will engage with public and private landowners to reduce fertiliser use in catchment areas.
- Extend the research in the Lake Tuggeranong catchment. Up to $1.5 million for a research agreement between ACT Government and the University of Canberra to investigate sources of water pollutants into the lake and potential treatments.
- Support the government to develop new modelling and reporting tools. This will enable us to better manage water quality across the ACT.
The ACT Government will also work to improve water quality in rural catchments, streams and rivers in bushfire affected areas.
Quotes attributable to University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Paddy Nixon:
“The University of Canberra and the ACT Government have worked closely over the last five years to better manage water in Canberra, including work on improved stormwater management in urban developments, and management of the water quality in Lake Tuggeranong.
“We are looking forward to expand this collaboration even further, in order to help safeguard waterway health for the Canberra community – this is particularly important as our city moves into a future likely to be dominated by more climatic extremes.”
