London, ON – Today, on World Water Day, Mother Teresa Secondary School became the 100th community to be awarded the Blue Community designation by the Council of Canadians. Students and faculty gathered for a morning assembly where a Blue Communities certificate was presented to Principal Paul Lamoureux and Student Council Environment Minister Emma Harmos, the student who led the process of seeking the designation over the past year. The school joins four other Blue Communities in the London area: the City of London, Brescia College, Huron College, and the Congregations of the Sisters of St Joseph.
“We must protect and fulfil the human right to clean water,” said Harmos. “Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School recognizes our responsibility to promote this important cause, and we wanted to become a Blue Community to help make this happen. Our hope is to inspire other schools to follow suit.”
“Canada has been reluctant to implement the human right to water since it was declared by the United Nations in 2010, but it is needed here as much as anywhere,” said Mark Calzavara from the Council of Canadians. “There are still 28 First Nations reserves where it is not safe to drink the tap water. This must change. Blue Communities help to embed the right to water in our collective expectations, pulling our governments into action. It gives me hope for our future.”
In a time of growing water insecurity caused by the climate crisis, the Blue Communities Project encourages municipalities, campuses, faith groups and other kinds of 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 use of bottled water in facilities and at events controlled by the community seeking designation.
- Promote publicly financed, owned, and operated water and wastewater services.
Established in 2009, the Blue Communities Project now has 100 designated communities worldwide, including the municipalities of Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Paris, and Berlin.
The Council of Canadians fights to protect Canada’s freshwater sources from pollution, privatization, and government neglect. Our campaign work focuses on recognizing water as part of a shared commons and a human right.
Canada has no national strategy to address urgent water issues, leaving it up to communities to defend local waters. We support these Public Water Champions nationwide, mobilizing tens of thousands of our supporters and over fifty volunteer chapters. We are pushing the federal government to create a strong and independent Canada Water Agency and a comprehensive National Water Policy. We are opposing Big Water and its attempts to commodify water.
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For further information please contact:
Mark Calzavara
National Water Campaigner, Council of Canadians
mcalzavara@canadians.org
416-319-6524
