What do we mean by a catchment? It is the watershed area of a creek or river or lake. It is all the land from which rainwater flows downwards into that waterway. It is the local ‘face’ of the environment. The many activities which occur in a catchment determine the quality of the environment and water in the catchment. All the pollution, erosion and rubbish dumped onto the surfaces of a catchment eventually ends up in the waterway and degrades it. The water quality at the bottom of the catchment is the ledger of all our catchment sins.
Unfortunately most people have no appreciation of the catchment in which they live and are ignorant of the damage done to it, sometimes even unwittingly by themselves. Specifically some of the adverse impacts on our local creeks which are associated with catchment abuse are:
- Damage to the ecology on which aquatic creatures, birdlife and small mammals depend for existence;
- Loss of local biodiversity - bandicoots, kooraburras, etc.;
- Invasion of local bushlands by exotic plants and weeds;
- Sewage contamination of creek waters carrying health and environmental risks;
- Oxygen depletion of creek waters suffocating healthy aquatic life;
- Overfertilisation of creek waters causing excessive aquatic growth of algae, water plants and slime;
- Smothering of plants and animals with plastics; and
- Erosion of creek and stream banks;
Learn more:
See the photos below (meant to be viewed in order, like a slide show) - a visual case study and walk through of two very different catchments in Sydney. Slides provided by John Court.
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