An exploratory water quality analysis of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River catchment

Water is a vital resource for the survival of all living organisms. This important resource should be protected by ensuring that anthropogenic activities do not impact adversely the sustainability of water resources. Therefore, monitoring and assessment of rivers is required to inform planning regulations in order to safeguard community and stakeholders’ requirements in terms of water quality. Due to the high rate of population growth, development, increased agricultural use of land and industrialization, water quality in urban and peri-urban rivers has deteriorated over the last three decades. This paper explores the water quality of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River (HNR) in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The relevance of this lies in the fact that there have been audits in Australia that have found dramatic deterioration in some rivers’ health due to its surrounding land-use activities. In the past, there have also been incidents in the Sydney region where the water quality deteriorated to a critical state triggering public dissatisfaction and subsequent changes in water management authorities. This paper examines water quality at four different monitoring stations along the HNR using about sixteen years of data (2000 to 2015). This covers six water quality parameters, which are algae, E. coli, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, conductivity and turbidity. The results indicate that stations which are located near the urban areas have higher pollution levels; however, further study is needed to confirm this initial finding