The Halifax Regional Municipality is home to over 1,000 lakes, more than 20 rivers, innumerable streams, and 23 major coastal shorelines places for recreation, and fish and wildlife habitats. Through our Regional Plan, we've committed to study watersheds and natural watercourses before secondary planning takes place in an effort to maintain the health of water and meet body contact recreation standards in its lakes, waterways and coastal waters.
Municipal water management
LakeWatchers is our community-based lake monitoring program that gathers water quality data to help us understand the health of our lakes and how they are changing. The program brings volunteers together with consultants to conduct community-driven science with the goal of collecting data that will be used to promote sustainable development in the municipality.
Living Lakeshores aims to help us enhance shorelines and build community. In 2025, the municipality's Environment and Climate Change team, in partnership with TransCoastal Adaptations (TCA) at Saint Mary’s University and the Ecology Action Centre, launched the project, which builds the resilience of freshwater shorelines in the Halifax region using natural restoration approaches.
What we can all do
Famed Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki reminds us that “whatever we do to the earth, we do to ourselves,” and that includes the water. The things we produce are dissolved into the water, affecting its quality. When a storm hits, the water that rushes across the many impervious surfaces of the city drains into our lakes and rivers.
Whether it’s the salt we put on our driveways or the fertilizer we use in our yards, the actions we take and choices we make have impacts on the water that we rely on.
Here are some small actions you can take that can have big results:
- limit the amount of hard surfaces and turf grass you use
- replace grass with deep-rooted, thirsty plants that are native to your area, which can reduce water pollution, prevent flooding and invite pollinators
- volunteer with LakeWatchers, our water quality monitoring program
- take part in free Green Shores naturalization training as part of Living Lakeshores
- test your well water because it could contain unwanted chemicals and bacteria, viruses or parasites that can cause disease
- capture and filter water by planting a rain garden or installing a rain barrel
- don’t use chemical fertilizers, herbicides or pesticides, which wash contaminants into our waterways
- learn more about cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae
You can also take part in our Shore Up Workshop at Albro Lake Park. This a hands-on, multi-day workshop uses nature-based solutions to create a healthier riparian zone. This workshop is open to everyone (ages 18 and older) and will have a variety of tasks available to suit different physical abilities and comfort levels. You will learn widely approaches to enhancing freshwater shoreline health.
The workshop will take place over three days: April 21-23 from 9am-4pm.
Natural vegetation is the key. Naturalizing the area within 20 metres of a watercourse reduces flooding, keeps water clean and cool (and more suitable for fish). It also reduces erosion and maintains biodiversity.
Floating wetlands
One of the projects we're most excited about are the floating wetlands we installed in Kearney Lake back in August 2025. Working with the Centre for Water Resources at Dalhousie University, we placed floating pods lined with coconut coir and a shallow mix of soil and mulch in the lake.
As these lively pods grow, their roots reach down into the lake and use nutrients like phosphorus as their food.
Once the plants have grown enough to fill the pods, we will harvest them in the spring and the nutrients they used to grow will be removed from the lake system. This has the benefit of purifying the water by fighting "eutrophication."
Learn more on the HalifACT Hub.
How can I improve the health of lakes, rivers and watersheds?
Watersheds are interconnected. Every action that effects the land also has indirect effects on lakes, rivers, and the ocean waters they drain into.
Simple individual actions can help preserve and improve the quality and health of these waters:
- reduce and/or eliminate the use of household and commercial hazardous products
- make use of Household Hazardous Waste Depots and avoid pouring used cleaners, paints, chemicals or other materials down your drains or into storm water systems such as gutters, ditches, storm sewers, or streams
- pick up after your pet, and dispose of the waste in the garbage
- limit your use of lawn fertilizers, or try alternatives such as compost
Invasive aquatic species
Local waterways are home to both native and non-native plants and animals. Non-native species whose introduction causes—or is likely to cause—harm to people, the environment, or the economy, are called invasive species. The Municipality has a few invasive species on its radar.