Amazon and the Australian River Restoration Centre collaborate to restore waterways that supply Greater Sydney’s drinking water
SYDNEY, Australia – 3 August – Amazon has announced a ten-year collaboration with the Australian River Restoration Centre (ARRC), a national not-for-profit, to restore a degraded stretch of the Coxs River in Greater Western Sydney – a waterway that feeds the reservoirs supplying drinking water to millions of people.
Amazon will fund work across 14.8 kilometres of the upper Coxs River, where decades of land clearing, grazing and invasive plant growth have eroded banks, clouded waterways with sediment and allowed livestock waste to enter the water supply. Once completed, the project is expected to improve water quality and availability by nearly 400 million litres of water per year for millions of people in Greater Sydney.
The ARRC will carry out the work in collaboration with local landowners over an initial two-year implementation phase, followed by monitoring and maintenance through to 2036.
The new project will address three interconnected challenges along the Coxs River.
- Invasive willows: Dense willow growth has overrun creek channels, drawing large volumes of water from the system and suppressing the growth and recovery of native plants. The project will see the removal of willows and replacement with native species, helping to restore these fragile ecosystems and freeing water to flow downstream.
- Erosion: Historic land clearing and grazing pressure have contributed to the start of active erosion in parts of the catchment, with sediment entering waterways that feed Warragamba Dam, reducing the dam's capacity to store water over time. Erosion has decreased water quality and degraded farmland and native vegetation. Erosion control programs will stabilise active erosion and increase water quality for the broader community’s benefit.
- Livestock pollution: Unrestricted livestock access has increased nutrients and pathogens into the waterways that feed Sydney's drinking water catchments. New livestock exclusion fencing, off-stream watering points and dedicated crossings will help keep livestock out of waterways, reducing contaminants entering waterways and allowing bankside vegetation to regenerate as a natural filter.
The project also aims to rebuild habitat for native species including platypus, freshwater crayfish and other aquatic wildlife. Revegetation along waterways and wetlands will provide shade, stabilise banks and support the return of native plants and animals.
The Coxs River project is Amazon's second water replenishment initiative in Australia. Its first, launched in 2024 with conservation group Great Eastern Ranges, is restoring nearly 54 hectares of land in the Buxton District of New South Wales devastated by the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires. That project returned approximately 48.5 million litres of water to the Greater Sydney Water catchment in 2025 by removing invasive weeds that consume significantly more water than native vegetation, and by replanting riverbanks to reduce stormwater runoff.
“As part of Amazon’s global goal to be water positive by 2030, Amazon is investing in water replenishment projects that expand and improve community water access, availability, and quality,” said Matt O’Rourke, Head of Infrastructure Policy, Amazon Australia and New Zealand. “What makes this project special is its direct connection to the drinking water supply for millions of people in Greater Sydney. By leveraging the ARRC’s expertise to address major challenges and restore Coxs River catchment, we’re not only helping to increase water volumes in reservoirs that provide drinking water to millions of people, but we’re also helping to reduce treatment costs, restore native ecosystems, and build long-term resilience for one of Sydney’s most important catchment areas.”
“The Coxs River catchment project shows what's possible when we invest in healthy waterways. By restoring this important part of Sydney's drinking water catchment, we're creating benefits for both people and nature, improving water security for millions of Sydneysiders while helping native plants and wildlife recover and thrive,” said Siwan Lovett, Founder and CEO of the ARRC. “At the ARRC, we see river restoration as one of the most effective ways to build resilience for communities and the environment at the same time. We're delighted to be collaborating with Amazon and local landholders on this project, demonstrating that restoring natural systems can deliver lasting benefits for water security, biodiversity and future generations.”
Amazon invests in water replenishment projects to become water positive in its data centre operations by 2030
Amazon has two data centre Regions in Australia located in Sydney and Melbourne, and has committed to investing AU$20 billion to expand, operate, and maintain data centre infrastructure in Australia from 2025 to 2029. Amazon data centre facilities are designed to be highly water efficient: in 2025, Sydney achieved a Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) of just 0.10 litres per kilowatt hour, and Melbourne just 0.06, compared to a global data centre industry average of 0.84 litres per kilowatt hour. That means Amazon's Australian data centres use up to 93 per cent less water than typical data centres to deliver the same computing power.
Beyond efficiency, Amazon is working to replenish more water than its data centres use. In 2022, Amazon set a goal to become water positive in its data centre operations by 2030 — returning more water to communities and the environment than it uses in direct operations. By the end of 2025, Amazon was 75 per cent of the way to that goal, returning three litres for every four used. Globally, Amazon has announced more than 55 water replenishment projects that, once completed, are expected to return over 27 billion litres of water annually through watershed restoration, improved water access, leak reduction, and efforts to address water scarcity.
Visit Amazon’s Sustainability website to learn more about Amazon’s water stewardship
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About the Australian River Restoration Centre
The Australian River Restoration Centre (ARRC) is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to restoring rivers through on-ground action and sustainable land management. We work directly with landholders and communities to deliver riparian restoration, stock exclusion, erosion control, revegetation, invasive species management, and long-term maintenance. ARRC has over 15 years’ experience delivering on-ground restoration, using robust methodologies to deliver tangible outcomes for water security, carbon sequestration, biodiversity, and climate resilience. Our projects are long-term and can operate up to catchment-scale, building the local partnerships needed to address root causes of catchment degradation.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon. For more information, visit amazon.com/about and follow @AmazonNews.