Water Quality

#Improving the quality of water entering our Reef.

Budget: $199.6 million

Declining water quality associated with run-off from the adjacent catchments is a major cause of the current poor state of many of the coastal and marine ecosystems of the Great Barrier Reef (more on this here).

Almost half of the Reef Trust Partnership funding is allocated to contributing to efforts aimed at addressing water quality issues. Improving water quality is expected to play an important role in improving ecosystem resilience.

The Reef 2050 Water Quality Improvement Plan identifies priority catchments and targets for reducing pollution from catchments flowing to the Reef. Funding under the Reef Trust Partnership aims to deliver measurable progress towards those targets.

#End of Partnership Outcomes

The Reef Trust Partnership’s Water Quality component will result in:

Enduring reduction in long-term end-of-catchment pollutant loads

Innovations for system change in water quality improvement made available

Maintenance of water quality from less disturbed catchments

Increase in Traditional Owner-led water quality improvement projects

#Reports and Publications

CaneRise Mackay Whitsunday Summary (The Social Deck, 2024)

RTP- Water Quality

Sugarcane Programs Learnings and Recommendations Report (Dench, 2024)

RTP- Water Quality

Landscape Remediation Learnings and Recommendations Report (Landloch, 2024)

RTP- Water Quality

Grazing Land Management Learnings and Recommendations Report (Kerr, 2024)

RTP- Water Quality

Behavioural Insights for Practice Change in Sugarcane (The Social Deck, 2022)

RTP- Water Quality

Reef Sugarcane Landholder Characterisation Report (Mosaic Insights, 2022)

RTP- Water Quality

Investment Pathways Report (Alluvium, 2019)

RTP- Water Quality

#Progress Dashboard

Transparency and accountability are key guiding principles for the Foundation in delivering the Reef Trust Partnership.

A series of interactive dashboards has been developed as part of our Monitoring and Evaluation Plan. The dashboards are updated every six months to demonstrate progress towards meeting End-of-Partnership Outcomes. The following dashboard provides a snapshot of key progress areas that deliver the Water Quality Component’s End of Partnership Outcomes.

Find out more about the RTP progress dashboards in these Frequently Asked Questions.

#Partnership Activities

Our five-year plan for the Water Quality component includes the following six Partnership Activities:

Early investments

Budget: $19.2* million

Significant on-ground resources are required to deliver activities to make progress towards water quality targets. The first funding released under the Reef Trust Partnership Water Quality Component was via a round of water quality grants, focused on projects that would maintain or build on-ground delivery capacity throughout the Reef catchments.

Regional programs

Budget: $138.1* million

Ten regional water quality programs are underway to directly reduce dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), sediment and pesticide loads from priority Reef catchments. The program are focusing on proven, on-ground measures for improving water quality including catchment restoration and improved land management practices. These 10 programs are expected to result in 456 fewer tonnes of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN), 250 fewer kilograms of pesticides and 462 fewer kilotonnes of sediment entering the Reef every year from 2024.

Conservation and protection of less disturbed catchments

Budget: $10 million

This funding aims to maintain and/or improve the quality of water entering the Reef from less-disturbed catchments. $8.5 million has been allocated to the Eastern Cape York Water Quality Program, which will enhance knowledge of water quality and related ecosystem health in the region and reduce pollutants flowing from the Cape to the Reef. Other investment is being made into better understanding the role of wetlands in reducing nutrients entering the Reef. This will be used to assist the prioritisation of wetland restoration.

Innovation and system change

Budget: $10 million

There is a need for a transformational change in how water quality improvement activities are designed, funded and implemented. We are supporting activities aimed at making this change a reality. 

Traditional Owner-led water quality activities

Budget: $20 million

Direct investment in Traditional Owner Country-based planning and management for improved water quality outcomes.

Technical Advisory

Budget: $3.3* million

Technical expertise is required to guide program design and implementation, to
ensure the quality of on- ground actions, to manage project data, and to validate outcomes. There are also opportunities to leverage project activities to maximise scientific learning and to support capacity building on the ground.

* Prior to the release of the Annual Work Plan 2021-2022, costs associated with technical advisory work (including the investment pathways consultancy undertaken by Alluvium Consulting) have been embedded within the relevant Partnership Activities. For ease of administration and to improve transparency, these costs are now shown separately. The Technical Advisory budget consists primarily of a re-allocation of 2% of the budget for the regional programs, noting these funds will continue to be used to support those programs.