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Adopt a Drain
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Get involved in protecting local waterways – one stormwater drain at a time!
The Adopt a Drain initiative has two key parts: a community programme and a school programme. Both offer a hands-on opportunity to learn about stormwater, how it travels through your area, and simple actions you can take that prevent stormwater pollution.
As part of Adopt a Drain, an ORC metal fish is installed on a chosen stormwater drain to mark the beginning of a neighbourhood, community group or school’s commitment to care for it. The fish acts as a visible reminder that only rain should go down the drain.
Our community programme is designed to fit the needs of urban neighbourhoods, businesses and community groups. To get started, email catchments@orc.govt.nz to express interest. Just include your name and a general idea of where you’re located (e.g. town, city, or suburb).
Once you’ve registered interest, our Catchment Advisor Team will get in touch to arrange a time and date that works for you. We’ll come to your street, work site, or place of interest for a 30-minute workshop, where you’ll learn:
- What stormwater is
- How it travels through your area
- How to safely care for your local drains and simple actions you can take to prevent stormwater pollution
At the end of the workshop, we’ll install an ORC metal fish on your chosen drain. This marks your commitment to protecting it – helping ensure only rain goes down the drain.
Adopting your chosen drain and installing a metal fish is just the beginning. From here, you and your group take on the role of looking after it – helping to keep it clear and applying what you’ve learned in the workshop to your everyday actions. These small changes help protect the health of Otago’s rivers, lakes, wetlands, and the sea.
We've created this neat interactive map showing stormwater drains across Otago. When a drain has been adopted, a fish icon will appear. You can zoom in to explore the details – or find your own local drain. Please note, this map is built using publicly available data, there may be additional stormwater drains and systems that haven’t been included yet.
The Adopt-a-Drain map might take a moment to load – thanks for your patience!
We work alongside Otago schools and Enviroschools Facilitators to raise awareness of urban stormwater pollution and encourage participation. Our Adopt a Drain school programme is flexible and can be adapted to the needs and capacity of your school. We tend to structure the programme into three sessions:
- Session 1: What is stormwater? Students learn to how stormwater affects the health of our waterways.
- Session 2: Why is stormwater important? Students learn how to identify things that live in their local stream.
- Session 3: Let’s ‘Adopt a Drain’! - Students discuss actions their school can take to reduce stormwater pollution and a metal fish is installed on their chosen drain as a reminder of “only drain rain”.
Stormwater isn’t pure rainwater. As it flows over the ground and paved areas towards a drain, it picks up pollutants. Whatever goes down a storm drain, whether poured in intentionally or washed down with rainwater, enters our waterways untreated. Understanding how stormwater networks function and how to stop pollutants such as car oil, soap suds, solvents and fertilisers from entering a storm drain is important for everyone. Remember: only drain rain.
In Wānaka, local organisations the Touchstone Project and WAI Wānaka have been at the forefront of stormwater education in their community. In 2018, The Touchstone Project created metal cut-outs of local fish, known as 'Freshwater Beasties on Drains.' These fish were installed beside storm drains with the help of students from Wānaka Primary to remind the community of the connection between stormwater and local aquatic life. This initiative was a collaboration with Fish and Game Otago and Friends of Bullock Creek.
Building on this project, WAI Wānaka launched their Adopt a Drain initiative in 2022. The programme encourages urban residents, schools, and businesses of Wānaka, Hāwea and Luggate to take responsibility for their local storm drains. Learn more about WAI Wānaka’s Adopt a Drain programme here.
In 2024, Otago Regional Council’s Catchment Advisor team met with WAI Wānaka to explore how the concept could be adapted and expanded across Otago. While inspired by the work happening in Wānaka, the ORC Adopt a Drain programme has now evolved into its own version – tailored to suit a range of local communities and designed to grow across the region.
Whether you’re ready to adopt a drain or just want to learn more, we’d love to hear from you!
If you live in Wānaka, Albert Town, Hāwea or Luggate, contact getinvolved@waiwanaka.nz to connect with the WAI Wānaka team.
If you live in any other urban area in Otago, including the Dunedin area, contact catchments@orc.govt.nz to reach our Catchment Advisor team.
