Catchment Care

Since 2014 we have proudly partnered with Hunter Local Land Services to provide the School Engagement Project. The project offers a series of educational opportunities focused on building teachers' and students' knowledge around catchment and waterway health, investigating how healthy their waterways are and engaging the wider community to reduce threats to water quality.

We are extremely proud to partner with Hunter Water to educate local school students about how they can protect our precious waterways, both now and into the future.
Jane Lloyd-Jones, Lower Hunter School Engagement Officer

The project includes the following activities:

Water testing

Students are taught how to test the quality of their local waterway using a Waterwatch testing kit. Using simple testing methods, students test temperature, pH, electrical conductivity (salinity), turbidity and available phosphate. Schools can apply to borrow a Waterwatch kit to undertake further testing at their chosen site.

Water bug surveys

Students learn how to undertake macroinvertebrate (water bug) surveys, which are an indicator of catchment health. Students dip nets for water bugs in their local creek, then identify, sort and count the water bugs found. Schools can also be involved in the National Waterbug Blitz, a nationwide waterway monitoring event.

Caring for our catchments

Catchment_Care_Education_001

This is an in-class presentation and activity focussing on managing catchment health in both agricultural and urban areas. Content is localised for your school, so students are investigating local issues and identifying solutions. Persuasive texts, eg brochures or videos, may then be produced by the students to pass the message on to their local community.

Enviro-stories

Students write and illustrate a storybook on the theme of healthy waterways. The story is published into an A5 school reader and the students have the honour of becoming published authors. The book is distributed to schools, libraries and throughout the wider community as a resource to help others learn about the topic.

Adventures at your place

A fun and interactive website designed by Local Land Services to educate both children and the community about environmental issues and catchment care.

Get involved

You and your school can become involved in the School Engagement Program.

Water Futures Challenge

It's important to us here at Hunter Water to educate the next generation on the real world problem of water scarcity. Our Water Futures Challenge asks primary and high school students from the Lower Hunter to come up with innovative water saving solutions.