Streamwatch is a water quality monitoring program run by Sydney Water in partnership with the Sydney Catchment Authority (SCA).

The program supports school and community groups that want to help improve their local environment through regular monitoring activities. Streamwatch is suitable for groups that are able to monitor every month for at least a year.

Streamwatch involves over 200 community and school groups who monitor about 600 sites across Sydney, the Illawarra, the Blue Mountains and the Southern Highlands.

These groups monitor water quality and survey macroinvertebrates (water bugs) to understand catchment and waterway health.

Streamwatch groups use their data to show gradual changes in water quality over time. Streamwatch monitoring can also be an early warning for pollution incidents, leading to action to protect water quality and catchment health.

To make sure the data collected is accurate, Streamwatch includes quality assurance features that include:

• training in sampling and monitoring techniques
• using standardised equipment that has been calibrated to ensure it is reliable
• verifying data to make sure it is accurate
• annual quality assurance events involving all groups.

Information is available on the Streamwatch website about:

• how to get involved
• resources to support water monitoring
• sites and data gathered by Streamwatch groups.

Information gathered by the groups is widely used by local councils, catchment management authorities, landowners and other land managers.

Find out more by visiting Streamwatch or reading the Streamwatch brochure (PDF - 1930KB) .

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