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

Water event to examine Nestlé, the Great Lakes, and London becoming a Blue Community

October 15, 2018

Water advocates Emma Lui and Waasekom (Edward George) will be in London, Ontario on Wednesday to discuss water crises in the Great Lakes Basin and beyond at the event, What do water, the Great Lakes and the election have in common?

How much would it cost the Trudeau government to implement the human right to water?

September 28, 2018

The 2019 Alternative Federal Budget released last week outlines how much funding the Trudeau government needs to allocate in the 2019 budget - leading up to the federal election - to protect drinking water and watersheds.

Murky Waters: When Governments Turn Water Management into a Business

September 26, 2018

My chapter, Murky Waters: When Governments Turn Water Management into a Business, in the new book Corporatizing Canada looks at how governments are changing to operate like corporations in water management and how this can threaten people’s ability to access clean, safe and affordable water.

Bayfield becomes first community in North America to be recognized as a Plastic-Free Community

September 24, 2018

The website “Random Acts of Green” recently highlighted how one community in North America is saying goodbye to plastics. Bayfield, Ontario, a small community that sits at the edge of Lake Huron in Ontario, has been an environmental leader in many ways. Most recently, it has done a lot of work locally to raise awareness about the environmental impacts of plastic and has become the first place in...

What the drought warnings across Canada are telling us

August 29, 2018

B.C. is not alone in experiencing droughts and other extreme weather events, all of which are worsening with climate change. Extractivist projects like Nestlé’s and other bottled water takings, fracking, tar sands development, mining and other resource projects threaten clean water sources, further fuel climate crises and violate Indigenous rights.