Losing at ice hockey and losing our fresh water are a couple of the biggest fears Canadians have. However, I don't believe Canada's water resources will be stolen—but there will certainly be pressure to share and we are under great weight to accede to some of those demands. Growing commoditizing of our water resources for export is a genuine concern. Ensuring that sustainability of our water comes first will be our biggest challenge.
What are you recommending ordinary people and communities do to appreciate and conserve their rivers?
- Iraq's Eden: Reviving the Legendary Marshes (Tigris and Euphrates)
- Canada Cree Now Back Power Project on Native Lands
- London's Lost Trout River Reborn
- Big Trouble for Asia's Giant Catfish (Mekong River)
- Geographic Launches Project to Promote Protection of U.S. Rivers
- Streams Reduce Nitrogen Pollution, Scientists Find
We want local groups to organize their own activities so they will be both meaningful to them and appropriate to their communities. The issues are not the same everywhere. We provide suggestions and examples and can assist in getting the conservation message out, but what they do is up to them.
Is Canada's Rivers Day tied in any way to global initiatives to protect rivers in other parts of the world?
This year is the International Year of Fresh Water as declared by the United Nations, and Rivers Day this year also coincidentally falls on World Ocean's Day. There is a lot of focus on water this year. We will certainly link our activities and cross-promote, but we really want to focus on the issues in Canada as we feel there is a tendency to believe all is well here and will continue to be.
Rivers are the lifeblood of our land—we must learn to be good stewards of them and never take them for granted…for today and for always.
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