Keep the region's water clean

Be careful what you put down stormwater drains

It's simple. With cleaner water we have a healthier food chain - from tiny fresh-water creatures like whitebait, native fish such as kokopu and bullies, to larger sea-dwellers like crayfish, blue penguins, seals, dolphins, sharks and orcas.

People also benefit. Cleaner water means better fishing, uncontaminated seafood, safer swimming and more attractive riverbanks and coastlines for walking.

What is stormwater?

Stormwater isn't only the rainwater that runs off your roof and down the spouting. It also includes water that runs off driveways and streets into gutters. More accurately, stormwater is any excess water that doesn't soak into the ground.

It's different to the wastewater from your kitchen, laundry or bathroom that runs into the sewerage system and is then treated. Stormwater goes down separate drains and passes, largely untreated, into streams, rivers and the sea. So any pollutants mixed in with stormwater flow along streams, into rivers and end up in the sea.