A community forum was held at the City of Busselton last week to update the community on the Lower Vasse River.
Hosting the forum was councillor Sue Riccelli who sits on the Vasse Taskforce which was established in 2014 to improve the health and management of the Busselton wetlands after thousands of fish died in the estuary.
The taskforce is made up of members from GeoCatch, Department of Water, Busselton Water, Water Corporation and the City of Busselton.
The taskforce oversees the Revitalising Geographe Waterways program which was first funded in 2015, and aims to improve water quality and waterway health to retain high ecological values.
Ms Riccelli said their had been growing concerns in the community for the past two decades about water quality in the waterways and the issues had been around for a long time.
She said the Vasse Taskforce was crucial to tackle the issues and signigicant work had been undertaken since it was first established.
Revitalising Geographe Waterways program manager Kath Lynch said improvement in the waterways was a good news story and there was no chance she would have said that five years ago.
Ms Lynch said that nutrients entering the Lower Vasse River had decreased by 25 per cent over the last 10 years.
She said she hoped that water quality would improve within the next five to ten years rather than decades away.
"It is not a single solution to fix issues that have led to poor water quality, it is a jigsaw approach involving a number of activities to reduce nutrients, phosphorus and nitrogen levels in the water," she said.
"Removing sediment is part of the solution, not a single solution, would still get algal blooms due to nutrients still coming in off the catchment
"Ongoing funding will allow us to continue programs to monitor water quality and continue works to reduce nutrients off the catchment."
Also speaking at the forum was City of Busselton senior sustainability and environment officer Mathilde Breton who is working on the Living Streams project.
Ms Breton said the aim of the project was to reduce the severity of algal blooms in the Lower Vasse River, which was important to improve the water quality and protect wildlife habitat.
She said the living stream project would not resolve the river overnight and that it would be a number of years before water quality improved.
