It's World Water Day and Bay of Plenty residents are being asked to consider their role in caring for water.
Bay of Plenty Regional Council chairman Doug Leeder said everyone had a role to play in caring for the water.
"From fixing leaks, and using drains only for rain, to making good choices about infrastructure investment, land use, and business practices.
"The effects of past land-use change, urban and farm run-off remain a risk, but overall the region's water quality and supply is in good shape by national standards," Leeder said.
"Untreated discharges to water have been illegal for a long time now, and we have a lot of pro-active work underway to clean up waterways, prevent pollution, and reduce land run-off."
Leeder reaffirmed the council's commitment to identifying and delivering on community expectations for water management at a Freshwater Rescue Forum hosted by Envirohub in Tauranga earlier this week.
Council staff also helped school children explore their impacts on water at an Enviroschools Energiser event in Te Puke on Tuesday, and are helping with a riparian management workshop at the Dairy Women's Network Conference in Rotorua, and a stream clean-up at Papamoa today.
Leeder said the council had been supporting landowners to improve riparian management for many years and was breaking new ground with the Lake Rotorua Nutrient Management rules it notified last year.
"We've got more work to do on fencing, planting, wetland restoration and other on-ground action, but most of the easy wins are already being delivered.
"The emerging water management challenges and regulatory framework we're now dealing with are incredibly complex. Investment in good science, modelling and stakeholder engagement, along with public infrastructure upgrades, will be crucial to securing clean waterways we can all be proud of in the long term."
Bay of Plenty Regional Council has allocated a 2018/19 budget of $46m for water management work in its Long Term Plan 2018-28 consultation document which is due for adoption by June 30.
That budget is spread across a range of on-ground action, science, planning, and policy work, to improve and protect the water in local rivers, streams, lakes and underground aquifers.
People can find out more about World Water Day and subscribe to updates about Regional Council's water work at www.boprc.govt.nz/freshwaterfutures.