Thanks to 25 years of regional planning, regulation, and community action, air quality across Waitaha Canterbury has improved dramatically — with high-pollution days dropping from up to 60 a year in some towns to fewer than 10 today.

Monitoring across our seven towns and cities in Waitaha shows a clear downward trend in high-pollution days between 2000 and 2025, and the number of days exceeding the National Environmental Standards for Air Quality (NESAQ) has dropped significantly. This is largely due to changes in wood burning for home heating.