Water website a first for New Zealand

March 29th, 2014
[Press release]

A new website housing water quality data from New Zealand's freshwater monitoring sites has been launched - www.lawa.org.nz.

Fran Wilde, chair of the Regional Council Sector Group said the Land, Air, Water Aotearoa (LAWA) website would provide a wide range of information that will help New Zealanders make good choices about using and enjoying our highly valued resource - fresh water.

"Never before has there been such a focus on the state of New Zealand's freshwater but until now there has been no single place to access information about the quality of our rivers," said Fran Wilde.

"Freshwater is a vital asset to our country and its important that the public can see and understand for themselves the state of a particular river or catchment and how it may be affected by what's going on around it," she said.

The LAWA website is a collaboration between New Zealand's 16 regional and unitary councils, the Ministry for the Environment (MFE), Cawthron Institute and Massey University.

A New Zealand first, LAWA displays state and trend information for over 1100 freshwater monitoring sites, giving the public access to all of the country's water quality monitoring in one place and in a common, easy to understand format.

Tasman District Council measures a range of parameters when assessing water quality. The most common are bacteria, nitrogen, phosphorous, water clarity and acidity.

LAWA allows users to see where a river or catchment sits in comparison to others for each parameter and indicates whether things are improving, degrading or remaining stable.

To give the public assurance around the accuracy of the data displayed, New Zealand's largest independent science organisation, the Cawthron Institute, has partnered with the councils and MFE to validate the way the data is collected, processed and analysed.

"We're excited to partner with regional councils and the Ministry in what we see as a truly innovative project bringing complex science into an easily accessible and understandable format," said Cawthron's chief executive Charles Eason.

"Many people can so often be put off by overly complex scientific information but we believe LAWA has simplified the science and allows everyone to connect with what's going on in their river."

LAWA also allows people to share information about what's happening in waterways.

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