Water’s Next Winners Announced
On June 22nd, over 160 water professionals came together to celebrate innovators and influencers in the water sector at the Water’s Next Awards Gala—part of the 8th annual Canadian Water Summit in Toronto. Water Canada editor, Katherine Balpataky said that ”This year, we received nearly 60 submissions, and with the Selection Committee’s help they were whittled down to three or four finalists in each award category,”.
Kat Hartwig, from Brisco, BC, won the Water Steward of the Year award for the work that Living Lakes Canada team has done over the years, as well as the People- NGO category for her work on conducting a national scan in partnership with SFU and U of Acadia, to assess the state of community-based water monitoring across Canada.
Download the PDF Version of the SFU Report
Hartwig remarked, “I was truly grateful to accept this National award on behalf of all water stewardship groups, and closer to home, it is way to acknowledge the dedication, devotion amazing water stewardship groups and individuals of Columbia Basin have and the hard work that they continue to do.
Ms. Hartwig pointed out that “the era of climate imposed decisions regarding source water protection and water allocation for humans and the ecosystems upon which we depend, has arrived. Twenty-first-century challenges will require forging innovative, collaborative partnerships to collectively ensure economically and ecologically viable, climate resilient communities in Canada.” concluded Hartwig, as the Water’s Next winners were announced.
Background
Water Canada magazine’s Water’s Next Award program is the only national awards program to honour leadership across the entire water sector—including public servants, non-governmental groups, researchers, municipalities, and technology providers., Water Canada has hosted the awards to help strengthen and celebrate the thriving national community by showcasing Canada’s water leaders, champions, and innovators since 2010 .
“The awards themselves have two divisions. One is for the awards given to individuals—let’s call them “people,” yeah, the People division. And the other division we refer to as the Projects or Technology Division,”
Water Canada Magazine July/August Issue
The July/August issue of Water Canada features our very own Kat Hartwig and the Water’s Next Awards (pg. 7-9). We have collated relevant articles from the issue into a shortened version here: WC_LLC revised.
The issue begins with an introduction from Living Lakes Canada advisor Robert Sanford. Introducing future potential international collaborations in order to create a new water ethic in Canada. Sanford states “One of the best exports for improved integrated watershed management has been the movement toward citizen science and community-based monitoring…The pioneering work of Living Lakes Canada…ha[s] demonstrated the potential to inform decisions at multiple scales while building the country’s water stewardship culture.”(pg. 1-4)
Living Lakes Canada contributed water monitoring data from various regions to the recently released WWF Freshwater Health Assessment. Elizabeth Hendricks relays these alarming results in “Health Check: Years of research by WWF-Canada lay bare the need for national freshwater monitoring system.” (pg 5-6).
Thomas Axworthy describes the need for further water policy and leadership. He identifies the critical relationship between water and peace, and how the issue of water scarcity is a threat to peace and should be taken up by the UN Security Council. (pg. 10).
