WWF Celebrates Canada Water Week

WWF (World Wildlife Fund) is celebrating water from coast to coast to coast during Canada Water Week. Canada Water Week is a week-long celebration of water from coast-to-coast-to-coast, starting March 14 and culminating with World Water Day on March 22, 2011. Individuals, organizations and governments across the country got involved by organizing or participating in fun and educational events.

With the world’s largest coastline (202,080 kms) and a significant amount of the world’s fresh water (Canadian rivers discharge almost 10 percent of the world’s renewable water supply), Canada is sensitive to water issues. To help raise awareness about the importance of protecting this precious resource, Canadians are organizing and participating in fun and educational events to commemorate Canadian Water Week. Canadians created their own events to celebrate local waterways including everything from guided walks to concerts. See the searchable events calendar.

Highlights include a WWF river exhibit at the Sherbrooke Museum of Nature and Science which is titled “A River Runs Through It”. On March 17, WWF’s freshwater director, Tony Maas, was present at the exhibit’s grand opening. The exhibit reveals the secrets hidden within Canada’s rivers, and highlights the importance of protecting them.

The theme for this year’s Canada Water Week is, “Healthy Rivers, Living Lakes.” This is an appropriate theme because Canada has more surface area covered by freshwater then any country on earth. “Our vast country is home to some of the largest, most beautiful and most economically important rivers and lakes in the world,” said Tim Morris, Program Manager of the Walter and Duncan Gordon Foundation’s Freshwater Protection Program. “We launched this initiative to both celebrate the connection we all have to this precious resource and to inspire action at the individual, community, provincial and federal level to ensure that our rivers are healthy, our lakes are living and our water is clean.”

Glenn Issac, North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper in Edmonton Alberta said, “We want to empower all those who attend our CWW event by providing them with actions they can implement to improve our water quality such as highlighting a program for the safe disposal of pharmaceuticals in our community. The North Saskatchewan Riverkeeper has a vision for watersheds where we can all safely and enjoyably swim, drink and fish: this is what CWW is all about.”

Vicki Burns, a Canada Water Week concert organizer, from Winnipeg said, “We are really excited about having local musicians and artists collaborate to create a Live Lake Concert and Art Show to celebrate our lakes and to promote the need for all of us to work at preserving and protecting them. It’s a first in Winnipeg and we’re proud to be taking part in Canada Water Week.”

Visit canadawaterweek.com to browse or add water images to the Flickr pool. Those who want to participate can register their events on the online calendar and join the conversation by clicking on the Facebook and Twitter (use the hashtag #canh2o) or see the World Water Week videos posted on YouTube.