Our new rally cry: KEEP WATER PUBLIC!

We understand water as fundamental to life: sustaining communities, supporting the web of life around us, and connecting us across generations. Water does not recognize property lines or political boundaries. It moves through a shared system that all of us depend on and have a responsibility to protect.

However, the systems governing water increasingly tell a different story.

Across Ontario and beyond, water continues to be extracted, bottled, stored, bought, and sold in ways that treat it less as a shared public trust and more as a source of private value. This precious entity that should be stewarded according to collective need is too often managed for private extraction and corporate profiteering. 

Our government empowers this water privatization and profiteering through the activities it permits: large-scale water extraction with little to no oversight, water bottling and resale,  MZOs for AI data centres, and the overall steady expansion of blanket permits that prioritize commercial gain. It happens through what is normalized: that water can be accessed at minimal cost, even as communities face insecurity and ecosystems come under strain. And it happens through what goes unquestioned: who benefits, who bears the risk, and what is lost over time.

The idea that water belongs to everyone, and no one, is quietly overshadowed by the assumption that it can be owned, controlled, and monetized.

The consequences reach far beyond bottled water alone. They shape how we think about responsibility, accountability, and who has a say in decisions that affect the waters we all rely on. They shape whether water is protected as a common good or managed as an economic asset.

This tension sits at the heart of what it means to keep water public.

For us, keeping water public means recognizing that water is more than a resource. It is a shared foundation of life that must remain accessible, protected, and governed in the public interest. It means resisting the steady normalization of water profiteering in all its forms and strengthening the systems of accountability, democratic participation, and collective care that water demands.

The future of water will be determined not only by the decisions governments and corporations influence, but by what the public is willing to defend, and what we are willing to imagine as possible instead.

History shows that organized communities can shape the future. We believe that people acting together remains our strongest force for protecting water as a common good.

Yours in the work of water protection and justice,

🚨 New Featured Action 🚨  End Water Profiteering

Across Ontario, publicly held water continues to be extracted, stored, and sold for private and corporate profit through the Province’s Permit to Take Water system.

At a time when communities and ecosystems are facing growing water stress, the government continues to permit large-scale water takings that prioritize private gain over public and ecological needs.

This system allows corporations to:

• Extract massive volumes of shared groundwater and surface water for profit
• Treat publicly held water as a commodity rather than a shared public trust
• Generate private wealth from a resource that communities and ecosystems depend on for survival
• Continue profiting from water while many communities, including Indigenous and marginalized communities, still face barriers to clean, safe drinking water

Water is life, not a commodity. Please take a moment now to send a message to Ontario decision-makers demanding immediate action to protect publicly held water from profit-driven extraction and commodification.

🌊 Upcoming Webinar – June 30th: Keeping Water Public!🌊

You rely on your tap every day. But recent changes at Queen’s Park could change who’s in charge of keeping that water safe, affordable, and accountable to you.

Ontario’s drinking water and wastewater systems have long been publicly owned and accountable to the communities they serve. But recent legislative changes passed by the Ford government are raising serious concerns among water advocates, labour organizations, municipalities, and policy experts.

What do these legislative changes actually do? How could they affect the cost, quality, and accountability of local water services? And what can communities do to ensure that water remains a public trust?

Join us and leading experts for a webinar on Tuesday, June 30th at 7 PM to explore the implications of these legislative changes, examine the history and impacts of water privatization around the world, and understand how Ontario’s recent reforms fit into a broader pattern of shifting essential public services into private hands.

We’ll also discuss how communities can help safeguard public stewardship of water. RSVP today for the Zoom link, and please share far & wide!

🌊 Last Chance to Add Your Input 🌊 Water Watchers AI & Data Centres Survey 

Your responses will help us guide our organizational decision-making as we consider launching a new campaign focused on the harms of data centres and AI, so please add your voice.

Things are escalating all around us, but so is our response. 

Together, we can face down these threats and ensure the life-giving waters we all depend on are honoured and protected, not exploited for profit. 

As always, we’re grateful for your friendship and allyship in this ongoing journey to protect water and each other. 

Yours in the important work ahead,
Water Watchers

PS – If you want to help resource the fight to KEEP WATER PUBLIC, we could use your support! Make a tax-deductible donation here through our Water For Life partnership with Small Change Fund here!