There are many organizations and allies doing great work on protecting water and the human right to water. Their websites and projects are great research tools for students and offer a window into the world of environmental and social justice activism.
Keepers of the Water is an Indigenous-led coalition of First Nations communities, environmental organizations and educational institutions devoted to building a grassroots movement to protect the Arctic Ocean Drainage Basin. Located in Slave Lake Alberta, Keepers of the Water was founded in 2006 with a large NWT gathering called together because the people of the northern Deh Cho – Mackenzie River – were alarmed about the condition of their watershed. Now, governments, universities and researchers turn to this organization to pave the way for water protection of the Arctic.
Wellington Water Watchers was founded in 2007 to oppose Nestle Water Canada’s water-bottling operation in Wellington County Ontario and sounded an early alarm about the perils of the bottled water industry. WWW has since become a leadiing voice and resource to grassroots leaders on the front lines of water protection.
The Vancouver Island Water Watch Coalition is a network of grassroots groups working to stop the privatization and commodification of water across Vancouver Island. Formed in 2005, this non-partisan network provides the public with information regarding the privatization of water and works to protect the environment by maintaining public control of water.
The Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society is a national organization dedicated to the protection of public land, freshwater and oceans with a presence right across Canada. Almost sixty years old, CPAWS is committed to seeing half of the land and freshwater in the country permanently protected to sustain nature for people and the planet.
With this exciting project, CPAWS teamed up with with four First Nations and the governments of Canada and Manitoba to protect the vast Seal River Watershed in Northern Manitoba as an Indigenous Protected Area.
For over two decades, the Blue Planet Project has supported global movements fighting for water justice based on the principles that water is a human right, a public trust and part of the global commons. The BPP oversees promotion of the international Blue Communities project and helped found the Peoples’ Water Forum, an alternative gathering of water justice groups held every three years to counter the corporate message of the World Water Forum.
Global Water Futures is a pan-Canadian research project of over 1,100 researchers led by the University of Saskatchewan in collaboration with the universities of McMaster, Waterloo and Sir Wilfrid Laurier, to prepare Canada to become a leader in water science for the world’s cold regions.
In March 2024, an historic gathering took place at the University’s main campus in Saskatoon bringing together for the first time, Indigenous water experts and Knowledge keepers to create a protocol that puts co-generation of research at the forefront.
Waterkeepers and Riverkeepers are citizen-based action groups who advocate for a local watershed, lake or river. They provide leadership and inspiration to protect, promote and improve the ecological health and future of their local waterway and are the country’s most skilled citizen enforcers of the federal Fisheries Act – the most powerful water law in Canada.
There are nine Waterkeepers in Canada. Three – Lake Ontario Waterkeeper, Fraser Riverkeeper and North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper – have come together to create Swim, Drink, Fish – to build a stronger movement wth more resources to better protect their waterways.
The Nova Scotia Environmental Network acts as a support system for many dozens of environmental organizations working toward a sustainable future in Nova Scotia. It supports over 40 local groups and uses the power of networking to strengthen the larger environmental movement for all.
NSEN has created a Water Caucus to support water resource management in Nova Scotia and serve water-focused NGOs in the development of water, watershed and coastal strategies and policy.
The Global Alliance on the Rights of Nature is a global network of people and organizations looking to transform our human relationship with our planet. GARN believes that humans must reorient ourselves from an exploitative and self-destructive relationship with nature and seeks to create a system of jurisprudence that sees and treats nature as a fundamental, rights bearing entity, not as mere property to be exploited at will.
The Rights of Rivers movement is a very important component of GARN. In Canada, the Quebec-based International Observatory on the Rights of Nature is playing a leading role in promoting the rights of a number of Canadian rivers. All current Rights of Rivers projects in Canada have been initiated and are led by Indigenous communities, including the Innu Council of Ekuanitshit in Northern Quebec; the Kitigan Zibi of the Gatineau River; and Keepers of the Water for the Athabasca River in Alberta.
The Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC is a hub for a network of local governments and communities to deliver the province’s Water Sustainability Action Plan, adopted twenty years ago. It plays a bridging role between the provincial and local governments and communities to advance on-the-ground initiatives to protect water and watersheds.
On its site, the Partnership provides information on local projects such as designing with nature to create stream health, news stories about water around the province and groundwater protection measures.
ENDORSEMENTS
Former UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Environment
“Water is life, and children understand this intuitively. However, they need to be taught about the threats to water, both locally and globally. And they need to be taught about the solutions to these challenges, so that they can be empowered as agents of change and ecologically responsible citizens. Therefore, I wholeheartedly endorse Blue Community Schools and support funding to make it possible. Children have a right to environmental education, and adults have a responsibility to provide the requisite educational opportunities.”
© Blue Community Schools . All rights reserved. Terms and Conditions | Privacy Policy
