Wai Care is a water quality monitoring, education and action programme for community groups and schools in the Auckland region. In August 1999 Councils from throughout the Auckland Region met to identify ways they could work together to promote the protection and enhancement of the Region's fresh water resources. From this meeting Wai Care developed as a community based education programme which looks at the effects that land use has on the region's water resources. It was modelled on programmes including Waterwatch (Australia), Adopt-a-Stream (USA) and Stream Sense and the Stream Health Monitoring and Assessment Kit here in New Zealand. The Wai Care programme aims to raise community awareness, and to encourage practical actions to achieve improved water quality of our streams, estuaries and coastal areas. The growing awareness of human impacts on the health of our streams has brought together people in the community with the shared common interest and willingness to take responsibility for these waterways.

Wai Care focuses on monitoring of the stream both chemically and visually and groups are trained to assess habitats and water quality and to develop an understanding of stream dynamics. It is the relationship between land, water and people that is important to the success of the programme. This means that we are on the lookout for water pollution and other holistic indicators of waterway health which can be detected by anyone in the community.

“Wai” is the Maori name for water and the name Wai Care was decided upon in conjunction with certain members of tangata whenua of the region to make the programme relevant to both Maori and non-Maori cultures.

The programme provides the volunteer groups with manuals, water quality monitoring kits and the coordinator for the region. The role of the co-ordinator is to provide ongoing support, training and advice. Each group determines their own objectives and outcomes of the programme. In this, Wai Care is used as a tool for groups to achieve these outcomes which provides a sense of ownership for the environmental issue of the group. The key to the success of Wai Care is that it is flexible and community driven and not a rigid or politically focused programme.

Part of the Wai Care Programme is to highlighting the importance of our own actions that can affect the environment. The things we do in everyday life can add to the pollution of our waterways and is a good starting focus for the groups as many people can be surprised of how the smallest actions can impact the environment.