Urban development and land management practices within and upstream of the ACT have caused the health of rivers and streams in the ACT to decline. Water quality has been diminished by increased sediment and nutrient loads, decreased oxygen concentrations, higher water temperatures, reduced flow, and increased algal concentrations. Most natural riverbank vegetation and habitat has disappeared. In recent years, extended drought and severe bushfires have combined to place enormous pressure on water supplies – for urban use, and for the natural environment:

• drought has reduced ground cover vegetation, river flows, water quality and the amount of water released for environmental flows
• bushfires have severely reduced water quality (from sediment and ash washing from the fire-denuded landscapes), and altered run-off – although run-off increased immediately following the fires it will gradually decrease over the next 15 years as re-growing plants place a higher than pre-bushfire demand on water.

Water is a precious resource – it is needed for urban and rural use and for environmental uses. Downstream users also need to be considered when calculating how much water the city of Canberra should be permitted to abstract. Currently it uses 1.3% of total water taken from the Murrumbidgee River system.

In the last few years urban water use in the ACT has been reduced following voluntary and mandatory restrictions. However, in some areas new water sources, particularly groundwater, have been tapped. Groundwater extraction in some areas is exceeding the acceptable limit of 70% of sustainable yield (ACT Government 2003). Run-off from suburban development continues to degrade water quality in rivers and streams.

In order to ensure that water quality in waterways is maintained or improved, and that long-term supply to all users is reliable, water use efficiency needs to be increased, and an integrated regional approach to water management needs to be developed and implemented.