This plan promotes the idea of total water cycle management, with stormwater harvesting, water recycling and reuse maximised to create a resilient, liveable and sustainable Canterbury-Bankstown.

The City’s waterways are under pressure from past and existing development, catchment disturbance, hydrological modification, land use transformation and large-scale vegetation changes. Projected growth, future development and climate change may also significantly impact upon water quality, liveability and recreational use of waterways unless all stakeholders within the catchment take appropriate action to manage these issues.

With a new approach to water management, our urban waterways can be restored as ecologically functional and liveable places. This will require multiple funding sources, partnerships with key land managers, promoting behaviour change and community education and a whole-of-city approach to value water in the landscape.

The Community Strategic Plan identifies seven destinations for our future City, including being a clean and green City. This plan helps to fulfill this destination to create a cool, clean and sustainable city with healthy waterways and natural areas. Key to achieving this will be improving the health of our waterways and becoming a water sensitive city.

However, the community has also told us the current state of our rivers and creeks was a cause of concern, due to littering and poor water quality.

In community surveys conducted for the development of the Local Strategic Planning Statement, Connective City 2036 – 82% of participants said they would like to see more transport links to natural spaces, creeks and rivers.

When asked to identify the top three environmental priorities for the City, four of the top seven priorities linked to waterways and how we manage its catchments.

Community feedback has made it clear that waterways and wetlands are recognised as places with huge potential. These opportunities stem from the recognition of waterways as places of significance for habitats and biodiversity. The restoration and naturalisation of existing waterways is seen as a high priority to connect areas of habitat as well as an opportunity to create a series of recreation and greenspace experiences.