Planning is underway to develop a Water Quality Monitoring Framework (the Framework) for the Katherine and Daly River Catchment.
Director of Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge (TRaCK), Associate Professor Michael Douglas said the Framework aimed to provide resource managers with a practical set of steps and considerations for planning and implementing water quality monitoring programs in the catchment.
“Changes in land use and increasing demands on water resources can all affect water quality and there is an opportunity for better co-ordination of current monitoring programs, so the need for such a framework is clear,” Dr Douglas said.
“The Framework, through public consultation, will identify what level of protection people want for their water resources so they can be appropriately managed in the future.
“The ideas of the community and stakeholders are needed so that the Framework is locally relevant and captures the values and uses that the community wants to protect now and for future generations.”
Public meetings will be held in the region during late October and early November 2008 asking community members what they see as risks to water quality, what they think should be monitored and at what locations. This information will be vital for informing the Framework.
The Framework will cover water in rivers, creeks and groundwater (water within aquifers accessed via bores and springs) within the Katherine and Daly River catchment, upstream of the Daly River estuary.
To get involved, contact Lyz Risby at the TRaCK Office at Charles Darwin University phone 8946 7449, fax 8946 7455 or e-mail lyz.risby@cdu.edu.au. You will be notified of workshops and kept up to date on the development of the Framework.
TRaCK is developing the Framework in partnership with Charles Darwin University, Greening Australia Northern Territory and the Department of Natural Resources, Environment the Arts and Sport and in consultation with the community. Funded by the Northern Territory Natural Resource Management Board, the project will run from September 2008 through to the end of March 2009.