Clearing silt from the Brisbane River and preventing flooding erosion should be a "green legacy" of the Brisbane 2032 Games, organisers have been told by a former Queensland Minister ©Getty Images

Unclogging Brisbane River silt that is currently choking Moreton Bay should become a "green legacy" from the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, a former Queensland Government Minister has suggested.

Citing the consequent restrictions to shipping channels and threats to the water supply, Stephen Robertson - who has held several portfolios including resources and water - told Brisbane Times that replanting eroded sections of the riverbank upstream would stop billions of tonnes of topsoil flowing from farms in the Lockyer Valley with every flood.

Robertson said the "clock was ticking" for Games organisers and other stakeholders to bring about meaningful environmental change.

Clearing silt from the Brisbane River and preventing flooding erosion should be a
Clearing silt from the Brisbane River and preventing flooding erosion should be a "green legacy" of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, organisers have been told by a former Queensland Minister ©Getty Images

"What you see increasingly when floods hit south-east Queensland is the mobilisation of billions of tonnes of soil and sediment from valuable farmland in south-east Queensland being transported into Moreton Bay," he said.

"That has a direct impact on seagrass meadows, their impact on dugong and fish breeding numbers, and even our drinking water.

"We dodged a real bullet back then.

"It is all integrated.

"If we can decrease the impact on the increasing natural disaster events on mobilising that sediment into our waterways and into Moreton Bay, that makes for a much more sustainable and healthier Moreton Bay for tourism and for the catchments themselves."