Blue Communities

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Blue Community The Blue Communities Project encourages municipalities and Indigenous communities to support the idea of a water commons framework, recognizing that water is a shared resource for all, by passing resolutions that:

Recognize water and sanitation as human rights.
Ban or phase out the sale of bottled water in municipal facilities and at municipal events.
Promote publicly financed, owned, and operated water and wastewater services.

The Council of Canadians, the Blue Planet Project and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) initiated the Blue Communities Project in 2009. Eau Secours is a partner on the Blue Communities Project in Quebec. The Blue Communities movement has grown internationally with Paris, France, Bern, Switzerland and other municipalities around the world going “blue.” Schools, religious communities and faith-based groups have also adopted principles that treat water as a common good that is shared by everyone and is the responsibility of all.

Here are some answers to commonly asked questions about the Blue Communities Project.

We invite you to become a part of the local and global movement for water security and justice by joining the Blue Communities Project – a joint initiative that furthers the work of local Water Watch coalitions across the country.

Learn what you can do as a community activist, public sector worker or municipal councillor to help protect the water commons – our shared water resources – in the face of increasing pressure to put water up for sale and privatize water services.

Map of Blue Communities:

Recent highlights

The World Council of Churches joins the Blue Community

August 13, 2018

Watch this presentation by the World Council of Churches on their decision to join the Blue Community project, a joint initiative by the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees that is now expanding to communities

Nestlé still pumping after Ontario water permit expired two years ago

July 31, 2018

Two years ago today Nestlé’s Aberfoyle permit expired. Yet the multi-billion dollar water corporation continues to pump up to 3.6 million litres a day from the Aberfoyle well. Since the permit expired on July 31, 2016, Nestlé has pumped an estimated 1.4 billion litres of water and counting.

WIN! Berlin becomes a blue community!

March 23, 2018

Maude Barlow addressed the Berlin House of Representatives on March 29, 2017. Berlin's House of Representatives (state parliament) has voted for the city-state of 3.7 million people to become a blue community!

Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada Becomes a Blue Community: Working Towards Making Clean Water a Human Right

December 7, 2017

On December 10, UN Human Rights Day, the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada will become the first group of religious communities in Canada to be designated a "Blue Community" which supports the right to safe drinking water.

Great Lakes groups band together to challenge Nestlé and water crises in Flint and beyond

October 5, 2017

Water Is Life summit speakers and participants were outraged that governments allow Nestlé and other water companies to take, control and sell water for a profit while failing to secure clean water for residents in Flint, Detroit, and many Indigenous nations.