Tell the NSW Government that the priority threat for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment is their own NSW Planning State Environment Planning Plans (SEPPs – Transport Orientated Development; Low and Mid-Rise Housing; Dual Occupancies) that are dramatically unzoning places across Greater Sydney including Ku-ring-gai.

The Hawkesbury-Nepean Rivers System Coastal Management Program is inviting feedback on who values Greater Sydney’s River system to say how it should be managed.

The deadline is Sunday 24 November 2024

What happens in Ku-ring-gai affects the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment.

More than one million additional people are expected to live across this Greater Sydney catchment within the next 15 years.

The dramatic population growth will:

• increase runoff that will pollute and contaminate the river system
• increase land clearing that will destroy habitat and escalate the decline in biodiversity
• dramatically change water flows that will impact on marine diversity

The Hawkesbury-Nepean River system is critical to the survival of Sydney as it provides drinking water for five million people across Greater Sydney and is home to hundreds of vulnerable species of birds and animals.

Dramatic densification increases will dramatically intensify degradation processes on Sydney’s river system especially in the vulnerable time of climate change. It will make it almost impossible for nature to ‘bounce back’.

Development pressure has enormous consequences for our river system.

Urban development and global warming are on a ‘collision course’ for the urban environment.

Climate change will increase the severity of storms and heat waves. More intense rainfall events will put increased pressure on storm water and wastewater systems and increase flooding.

The NSW Government is not responsibly planning for our future with the level of intensity across Greater Sydney.

We need to tell the NSW Government that the priority threat for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Catchment is their own NSW Planning reforms that are dramatically unzoning places across Greater Sydney including Ku-ring-gai.

Ku-ring-gai Council is one of the six councils that border the Hawkesbury River system who have come together to develop an integrated, whole of estuary Coastal Management Program.