We welcome a new Blue Community in our global network: the Canadian organisation (Wellington) Water Watchers just joined our movement! Water Watchers began as a grassroots organization founded in 2007 to oppose Nestlé Water Canada’s local water-bottling operations in Wellington County, Ontario. Today, the Water Watchers has become a unique resource to grassroots leaders on the frontlines of water protection. As they state in their communication:
It is more apparent to me than ever that packaged water is a threat to far more than just the environment. Opposing permits for water bottling is through and through a water justice issue and needs our focused attention. We are feeling empowered to connect the dots between water commodification, water privatization, the need to ensure the Human Right to drinking water for all and the devastating impacts of the tsunami of plastics our world is drowning in.
Thanks for taking time out of your life to engage in this work. Together we can stop these wasteful permits and protect water for life, not profit.
The water watchers launched a petition to call for a federal legal framework in Canada to ensure the Human Right to clean drinking water. Sign the Petition here.
And they produced a great leaflet/handout (PDF) to gathering places you frequent who currently sell bottled water. Paul Baines who used to work with the Sisters of St. Josephs on their Blue Communities project designed this flyer and invited groups to adapt it for their own use. This is an outreach potential for people who visit or manage a social gathering space that sells bottled water and want a change to business as usual. Examples are…. cinemas, theatres, community centres, restaurants, cafés, arenas and more.
