Water Monitoring Program
SSF Australia in partnership with Community Waterwatch (www.waterwatch.org.au) and Waterkeepers Australia (www.waterkeepers.org.au) runs a “Water monitoring program” based on the Moonee Ponds Creek and Werribee river, Melbourne. Part of this program is helping secondary school students learn more about their local waterway, in particular the Moonee Ponds creek. They learn about the ecology and geology of the surrounding landscape, human impact on this environment, and methods to manage the impact with the aim of improving the environment. Students learn environmental science and put their knowledge into action. Practical follow-up enables them to better retain what they have learned, improve their local environment and gain pride in their own community.
The success of this program has led SSF Australia to launch an initiative aimed at adult education based on water monitoring and management. In partnership with Waterkeepers Australia, this program is currently run on the Werribee River basin, Victoria.
Furthermore, this program has been extended to assist the Moonee Ponds Creek Co-ordination Committee (www.mpccc.org), by undertaking a water-monitoring program focused on Five Mile creek, a tributary of the Moonee Ponds Creek, which the local community is in the process of rehabilitating. The purpose of the water-monitoring program is to provide evidence of improvement in the creek’s water quality as a result of the group’s activities.
SSF Australia’s water monitoring work has been reported in the Water Air and Soil Pollution scientific journal.
More information on each of the monitoring programs is provided.
City West Water kindly donated water monitoring equipment towards these programs.