Skip to main content.

Limitations of this indicator

The limitations of this environmental indicator for fresh water are:

  • The recreational water quality indicator measures the water quality only at monitored lake and river sites, which may or may not be representative of recreational water quality elsewhere in New Zealand.
  • In addition, lakes and rivers are often monitored only when there is a known problem with water quality.
  • This indicator only reports on bacterial water quality. There are other water quality issues that could affect the public health risks associated with recreational use of fresh water such as toxic blue-green algal blooms or other pollutants such as heavy metals.

 

The above information has come from the latest national state of the environment report, Environment New Zealand 2007.

 

Return to the water quality at freshwater swimming spots page.

Last updated: December 2008