Healthy Waterways    Improving our waterways    Pressures on waterway health   Population growth

Population growth has a range of potential impacts on waterway health including water supply and diffuse source pollution.

Water supply

To support South East Queensland's rapid population growth, our potable water supply comes from a variety of sources.

The following provides 95% of the current total water supply:

• Wivenhoe, Somerset and North Pine Dams
• Hinze and Little Nerang Dams
• Baroon Pocket Dam
• Cressbrook, Perseverance and Cooby Dams
• North Stradbroke Island groundwater bore system

Population growth is bringing increased demands for water supply. This places increasing pressures on natural assets such as marine areas, bays, estuaries, rivers and streams.

The ongoing challenge is to ensure that in meeting the needs of an ever-increasing population, natural systems are not compromised.

Diffuse source pollution

There will be significant increases in diffuse source pollution resulting from the increasing population in South East Queensland. 

Diffuse source pollution is pollution that cannot be traced to a specific location. It arises from multiple and often small sources such as urban stormwater run-off and soil erosion.

Recent modelling estimates that by 2026 an additional 60,000 hectares of land will be converted to urban land use. By that time approximately 12.6% of South East Queensland will be urbanised.

Unless land use management and development control practices are improved, these additional urban areas will increase the diffuse source pollutant loads entering our waterways. 

For example, increasing urban development and hard surface areas will increase stormwater run-off speed and volumes. This run-off carries the pollutants associated with residential areas, roads and industrial activities into our waterways.

Greater efforts are needed to reduce diffuse source pollution and improve water quality. 

South East Queensland Healthy Waterways Partnership's Water by Design Program assists the land development industry and government to design urban environments that support healthy ecosystems.