The Star: September 26, 2019

Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
Thursday September 26 2019 The Star
NEWS 15
Healthy water and the next generation
One of the few
remaining water
education programmes
in the country is
focusing on teaching
the next generation
about the importance
of our aquatic
ecosystems and
waterways. Sophie
Cornish finds out more
DONNED IN oversized waders
and armed with nets and
enthusiasm, a group of students
stormed off the shingle bank and
splashed into Selwyn River.
The aquatic insects below the
surface stood little chance.
After disturbing their habitat
only slightly by swishing around
in their gumboots, the group of
year 9s scooped up water and
debris from below the surface.
It wasn’t until they got out of
the river and tipped their buckets
into a specimen tray that they
found all the live macro-invertebrates
including worms, larvae
and nymphs, they had collected.
Having an aquatic life present
is a good sign of the river’s water
condition, chairman of the Waterwatch
Education Trust, Kelvin
Nicolle said.
The group then inspected and
identified each insect before
returning it to the river.
The class visit on Monday was
one of three from Rolleston College,
who along with hundreds of
other students, have determined
the ‘health’ of their local waterways,
as part of the Trust’s environmental
outreach programme.
KEEN:
Students
Roman
Keno and
Mitchell
Nunan
collect
samples.
PHOTOS:
GEOFF
SLOAN
A growing focus nationally
on the controversial state of our
water meant the students were
already clued up on current issues,
including increasing nitrate
concentration levels.
High nitrate levels pose a
health risk, ECan chief scientist
Tim Davie said, which includes
blue baby syndrome, which affects
newborns, and a potential
for an increase of colorectal
cancer.
Year 9 student, Isabella McConaghty
believes all young people
should learn about the importance
of having clean water.
“There could be lots of kids our
age or even younger coming up
with ideas to fix it. So I think it’s
important.
The biggest concern is that we
won’t have any more sources of
fresh water. We’ll have to put
it through machines and cause
more chemicals to get in the
water,” she said.
Her classmate, Tyler
McLaughlan, is also concerned
about the future of our water and
the increasing pollutants getting
in it.
“Our drinking water is my
main concern. Water helps us,
animals, pretty much everything,
survive,” he said.
‘Water helps us, animals,
petty much everything
survive.’
– Tyler McLaughlan
Each year, thousands of science,
biology and geography
students ranging from year 7 to
year 13 learn about various water
environments through the programme,
along with community
groups, university students and
teachers studying agriculture,
horticulture and agribusiness.
The class begins with the
students being split into groups,
with one person collecting a sample
of water from the river.
Next, several experiments take
place using a variety of scientific
equipment to determine the
chemical make-up of the water,
including temperature, oxygen,
nitrate and phosphate levels.
Physical parameters of the water’s
profile such as streamflow,
turbidity, temperature and GPS
location data is also collected.
After this, the fun part begins,
with the students suiting up in
waders and trudging into the
river to collect their samples of
the aquatic insects.
The trust’s educators travel
across the region, with schools
examining their local streams,
rivers, ponds and lakes.
The programme was established
more than 20 years ago
and up until April 2017, was run
by Lincoln University.
Now a charitable trust, it is
funded mainly by grants from
the Rata Foundation and is
delivered free of charge, in spite
of receiving only about $25,000
funding annually.
Trust treasurer and educator,
Erroll Wood, said the educators
are mainly retirees who volunteer
their time, driven by their passion
for water education.
Up until recently, the programme
was one of several
nationwide, but most have now
ceased, in spite of the growing
focus on water issues.
“It’s important to educate the
next generation about current
and future challenges to our
water quality and availability.
We want students to be learning
about the environment, in the
environment; not as spectators
but as active participants,” Mr
Nicolle said.
Figures on nitrate concentrations
in the Selwyn district’s
EDUCATION: Chairman of Waterwatch
Education Trust Kelvin Nicolle hands
a sample to Rolleston College student
Brenda Pretorrus. (Above) – Ben Bowen
analysing samples.
water is continuing to increase, in
spite of limits being put in place
to try to reduce the issue.
Chemical testing results show
the nitrate levels have increased
more than half of the tested water
schemes over the last two years.
Dunsandel, Rolleston, Kirwee,
Lincoln, Darfield, Southbridge,
Sheffield, Glentunnel, West
Melton, Springston and
Springfield water sources all have
increased concentrations, some
of which are more than twice the
2017 levels.
An Environment Canterbury
spokesman said the increases
have come from the intensification
of farming.
“The 1990s is the latest phase
of intensification, but concentrations
were already increasing
earlier than that, as fertiliser
application and stocking rates
increased. By the 1970s, nitrate
concentrations were well above
natural levels.
“The increases have been
greatest in areas where
the groundwater comes
predominantly from rainfall
that percolates through soil. This
includes the Selwyn-Waihora
zone. The rainwater leaches
nitrate from the soil and carries
it from the land surface into
groundwater,” said the ECan
spokesman.
– Additional reporting, Devon
Bolger