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 Since the 1900's, industrial development, murky water and unattractive banks have been the story of our Heathcote River. Things began to improve from 1970 when a sewer was built to collect the wastes that were previously being allowed to drain into the river. Rata Ingram and her class from Heathcote Valley Primary School paid a visit to find out what the situation is like now.
We, as a class, visited the Heathcote River as part of our river study. To begin with, at our first stop, right up by the springs, the water was really healthy and we found a few baby caddis flies and a pond snail or two. Then we tested the pH. It was 6.4.
When we moved onto the next spot, we found lots of worms, a few snails and a number of baby smooth-cased
caddis flies. The pH there was 6.8.
The further we went down, the more healthy it got. Things changed however where the two parts of the Heathcote River connected in Woolston.
There the Heathcote's state was terrible, and all the silt at the bottom made it a grey colour. The pH was high alkaline, about 8.6 or more.
After that, we weren't allowed to test the water, because of the mud, silt and rubbish in the water. Ruben called it "the moving rubbish dump".
I asked my friend to tell you about our river's future. She lives in Heathcote like me, but 100 years in the future, in 2108.
 "Hi, my name is Melanie and I have been studying the Heathcote River. Its state is terrible! I'll tell you all about it.
If you take a glance out the window now, you'll see how badly polluted it is. See all that rubbish? The river really just looks like a rubbish tip. The banks are littered with rubbish and the dirty water is greyish-brown.
Not one creature, not even a bloodworm, can live in the high alkalinity and silt. The pH of the river is about 10.56!"
"All this pollution has got into the aquifers where Christchurch used to get all its water from. Back then the aquifers were one of the cleanest bodies of water in the world. Now we have to buy water instead, and that tastes disgusting anyway.
Still, the government is trying to clean up the river but it isn't really working. Too many people are throwing in too much rubbish. I think it's too late to save it."
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