On Tuesday, Canada reported back to the United Nations (UN) on progress for putting the SDGs into practice. Natalija Fisher was there last week to engage on topics of water, youth, and transboundary cooperation.

The Freshwater Alliance team is incredibly lucky to be infused with the vitality, passion, and creativity of four young water advocates this summer! We are excited to introduce to you Teghan, Josh M., Jillian and Josh S. who will be joining us for the next months! 

The Canadian Freshwater Alliance has been busy tracking Bill C-69 through parliament. Together with you, we proposed amendments that would strengthen the protection of navigable waters in Canada. Today, Bill C-69 - which includes the Canadian Navigable Waters Act, passed third reading in the House of Commons. The legislation still needs to pass the Senate before the law can take force.

Significant effort was made to strike a balance that would restore and modernize the Act. The Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development worked until midnight on the final day of clause-by-clause to vote through amendments in late May. Unfortunately, many amendments not accepted by the committee could have strengthened the Act considerably.

The world of citizen science is exploding.

Increasingly, governments, non-profit organizations, and research institutions are realizing the potential of citizens to help close data gaps when it comes to measuring and monitoring environmental health and change.

As more and more community members take up the task of citizen science, there are many challenges. Questions like:

• How can we store data?

• How can we share data and ensure its accessible and utilized?

• How can we ensure data are robust?   

• How can we ensure the instruments we use to measure parameters are both accessible and of good quality?

Water Rangers has been working to address some of these questions.

Often, social media is used to project the best of times. You could argue that we’ve been so good at sharing our most prized moments that, at least in the social media world, we’ve lost touch with the reality that some moments are just not that glorious.

And yet, we crave honesty and realness, maybe that’s why we see hashtags like #nofilter and #nomakeup gaining currency on our Instagram feeds. We value the courage in sharing realness, precisely because it is not pretending to be flawless; precisely because it is rare.

#nofilterH2O