This indicator monitors the quality of water available to rural communities, in the form of drinking water, and water quality in local rivers, lakes and waterways.

Water is fundamental to human life. Having access to drinkable water is a critical human need – and not having access can have a negative impact on personal and community wellbeing. It is estimated that more than 400 rural communities in rural and remote Australia lack access to safe drinking water. In these communities residents have to either purchase bottled water, or water to fill up tanks, or treat their own water. There are also many communities where local waterways regularly have water quality problems, with events such as blackwater events (deoxygenation of waterways), algal outbreaks, and pollution with long lasting chemicals, all challenges that are experienced by some rural communities. These water quality issues are both environmental health problems, and negatively impact the amenity and liveability of a community.

Advantages: Tracking water quality provides useful insight into whether communities have access to safe drinking water supplies, and safe waterways that people can use for livelihoods and for recreation, and that support the health of aquatic species.

Disadvantages: Water quality can sometimes vary widely across small distances, meaning one part of a rural community may have challenges accessing good quality water, while another has good access. Additionally, different towns sometimes have different water treatment systems, and those living on rural properties often rely on rainwater, groundwater, and water transported to their property. Monitoring who has access to good quality water can therefore be challenging, as many measures will cover some, but not all, community members.

The measures you can use for this indicator are scientific monitoring of water quality, or surveys asking residents to report on water quality experiences. Scientific monitoringcan involve testing water for key indicators such as dissolved oxygen, pH, salinity, turbidity, and chlorophyll-a, for specific pathogens and pollutants. It may be undertaken by government authorities, water managers, and not-for-profit organisations. Water quality monitoring varies across Australia in terms of the number of sites monitored, and the types of water quality monitored. Surveys can be used to identify subjective experiences of water quality, however these subjective reports may vary depending on a person’s awareness and perceptions of what represents good water quality.

To measure this indicator, it is recommended you identify what water quality monitoring is occurring in your community, and seek to access data from the authorities and organisations who are doing this monitoring.

If measuring perceptions of water quality in a survey, it is important to carefully design questions to obtain as consistent a response as possible. For example, the 2023 Regional Wellbeing Survey collected data on perceptions of both drinking water quality, and observation of water quality problems in local waterways, amongst people living in the Murray-Darling Basin. Examples of survey questions used are available in the Basin Community Values report.