Onkaparinga Waterwatch Network

Waterwatch
The Onkaparinga Waterwatch Network (OWN) was established in 1993 as part of a national community water monitoring, awareness raising and education program encouraging Australians to become actively involved in the protection and management of their waterways and catchments.

The Waterwatch program has a range of participants including school groups (years R-12), community groups (such as Friends groups) and landholders living throughout the catchment.

The school based education program provides a dynamic range of field and classroom based education sessions where students learn about a variety of water related issues through interactive 'hands on' learning. These include: frogs, fish, wetlands, macro invertebrates, catchment health, water monitoring and stormwater issues. OWN also caters to the educational needs of community groups and provides guest speakers and individual ssistance on a range of topics.

The water quality monitoring program currently involves 55 monitoring groups, including schools,
community groups and landholders, monitoring over 120 sites located throughout the catchment six
times per year. A range of parameters are monitored including: salinity, pH, temperature, turbidity,
nitrates and phosphates. Data is collected and entered into the Waterwatch Australia database, with
groups receiving feedback on a sub-catchment level.

Programs and activities

• Waterwatch Calendar of events (Download as a PDF)
• Water Monitoring key snapshop dates (Download as a PDF)
• Water quality testing - Results data sheet (Download as a Word doc)
• School booking form (Download as a Word Doc)

OWN provides an extensive range of classroom activities for students of all ages.
Click here to discover how Waterwatch can assist you to make teaching about water and catchments easy.

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