About Us

Blue Communities are cities and villages, universities and schools, companies and NGO, faith-based organisations and trade unions, etc. Based on the core values and principles of the Blue Community, they joined the Blue Community network with a self-declaration (commitment) to promote the human right to water and sanitation and to oppose privatization and commodification of water and its services. Blue Communities are working with governments, politicians, experts, journalists, activists and water operators to ensure water justice for all. The Blue Community network supports the Blue Communities in these efforts, helps to establish contacts among them and facilitates the exchange and cooperation.

Short History

The Council of Canadians, a Canadian social and environmental justice organization, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) initiated the Blue Communities Project in 2009 to help activists and decision-makers at the local level to stop the privatization of municipal water services and promote the human right to water.
As well as water services privatization, several major water sources were then and still are being exploited by large water companies such as Nestlé at a low price and polluted by the search for oil deposits. In 2011, the city of Burnaby in British Columbia became Canada’s first Blue Community.
On a European speaking tour, Maude Barlow, then Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, visited Bern, capital of Switzerland. She worked with then City President Alexander Tschappat and Rosmarie Baer, member of the national parliament, to have the Swiss capital declared the first Blue Community outside Canada, together with the University of Bern and the Evangelical Reformed Church of St. John.
Since then, the number of Blue Communities has steadily increased, with Montreal and Vancouver (Canada), Paris (France), Berlin and Hamburg (Germany), Brussels (Belgium), Los Angeles and Northampton (US), Cadiz (Spain), St. Gallen and Neuenburg (Switzerland) among many other cities around the world that have taken the “blue” pledges. (see Blue Cities). Universities and schools, trade unions and companies, religious communities and faith-based groups, even museums and youth radio stations, in Switzerland, Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, the U.S. and elsewhere have become Blue Communities. They have pledged to treat water as a common trust to be shared by all and democratically governed. The number of Blue Communities is growing steadily, with the network expanding to Africa and other countries around the globe.

The Blue Community Network

While the number of Blue Communities grew over the years, particularly in Canada and Europe, there was little coordination and communication between them. In Canada the Council of Canadians was the hub. Only in Switzerland, where Blue Communities spread rapidly, was there a national coordination for Blue Communities. Later, a coordinator also took on this role in Germany.

The Blue Universities in Switzerland asked for an exchange, to get to know each other and to establish cooperation on the Blue Community pledges. On the basis of these first networking events in Switzerland, the question arose as to the involvement of Blue Universities in other countries. In October 2023, the first video conference between Blue Universities worldwide took place. Today, Blue Universities meet regularly online twice a year.

But what about other Blue Communities? There was a growing interest in sharing and exchanging information beyond the university network. Building on this interest, the Blue Community .net website was created as an attempt to give all Blue Communities a place to share their activities, exchange success stories and plan joint actions.

As the Blue Community continues to grow around the globe, with the first affiliates in Africa and Asia, the network is also growing in content and collaboration. A summary of the first one year of the network can be found here.