The Pareora River has a catchment area of 539 km², of which 424 km² lies above the Huts recorder. Roughly one third of the catchment is steeplands and the remainder is hilly to rolling, becoming more subdued towards the coast. Flows in the rivers draining the higher rainfall steeplands are mostly perennial whereas many of those draining the lower rainfall downlands region are intermittent (Aitchison-Earl et al. 2006). The Pareora River is a locally significant trout fishery, and is also home to a number of native fish species.

The north and south branches of the Pareora River merge just upstream of the catchment’s long-standing flow recorder, a point approximately 16.5 km from the coast. The flow recorder lies at the base of Mount Horrible, and adjacent to the small batch settlement known as “the Huts”. This flow recorder was established in 1982 and is classed as a secondary recorder site because it has a flow record of less than 30 years

Although the river does flood on occasions, its usual state is to have extremely low flows. From a water abstraction perspective, Environment Canterbury regard the Pareora River as being over-allocated. The Timaru District Council (TDC) is heavily reliant on the Pareora River as a source of water for households and industry in the city of Timaru. The TDC take is the largest in the catchment, with a maximum consented rate of take of 215 L/s. There are also a number of large agricultural and horticultural operations which have been established in the catchment and are heavily reliant on water from the Pareora River for their sustainability.