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Water for Life Advocacy Campaign

About the Water for Life Advocacy Campaign
How Can You Get Involved?
Water for Life campaign resources
WaterCan’s case for investing in water and sanitation in the developing world

It is often mentioned that Canadians are fortunate to possess about one fifth of the world's freshwater. Indeed the relative ease with which we can get a glass of water sometimes makes us forget how vital this substance is to our well-being. Devastating natural disasters and humanitarian emergencies around the world often serve as a cruel reminder that without access to clean water and proper sanitation, people, no matter how resourceful, cannot survive.

Today, more than one billion people – about one sixth of the world's population or more than 30 times the total population of Canada – have no access to clean drinking water. More than double this number do not have the dignity of proper sanitation facilities.

The consequences of this situation on poor families are devastating. Every day 6,000 children die from preventable water and sanitation related diseases – this is equivalent to a death every 15 seconds. Hundreds of millions more suffer from diseases such as diarrhea, typhoid and cholera, and intestinal parasites. Trachoma, for example, is responsible for blinding about 6 million people. This is a disease that exists because poor people do not have access to clean water for bathing.  (Health facts about Water and Sanitation)

The United Nations has designated 2005-2015 the International Decade for Action “Water for Life” . which was launched on World Water Day (March 22) 2005.  The goal of the Decade is to provide a greater focus on water-related issues including achieving – at the very minimum – the global water and sanitation coverage targets pledged by the international community at the United Nations Millennium Assembly in 2000.   (Water and the Millennium Development Goals)

On World Water Day 2005, WaterCan launched Water for Life, our first-ever national education and advocacy campaign. Through this campaign, Canadians across the country can learn about key global water and sanitation issues, and encourage our government to increase investments in programs that provide safe and affordable drinking water and basic sanitation to the world’s poor.

WaterCan sees this Decade as a wonderful opportunity to highlight to Canadians from all walks of life the dire need for improving water and sanitation conditions in the developing world, and to mobilize the necessary resources from the international community to get the job done.

How Can You Get Involved?

  1. To learn more about this campaign, click here to download the campaign booklet. English version - French version
  2. Sign the Water for Life campaign postcard (contact WaterCan for your copy) and return it to WaterCan. English Version-front - English Version-back - French Version front - French Version-back
  3. Please ask your family, friends, and colleagues to do the same. On World Water Day (every March 22) during the UN Water Decade, WaterCan will deliver these signed postcards to the Prime Minister and the Canadian government. Your postcards will be an annual reminder and encouragement to your government that global water and sanitation issues matter to Canadians.
  4. Mention this campaign to your local Member of Parliament.
  5. BE A WATER FOR LIFE CAMPAIGN ADVOCATE

If you would like to organize a postcard writing drive for your school, workplace, or community group, contact WaterCan and we will send to you a Campaign Coordinator Kit that includes extra postcards and our popular “Clean Water for All” educational video. Through this campaign, WaterCan is striving to develop a strong constituency of Canadians who are concerned about global water and sanitation issues and are determined to do something about it.

Water for Life campaign resources
(available free of charge, click links for PDF versions)

To obtain any of these materials, contact WaterCan by telephone at 1-800-370-5658 or e-mail campaign@watercan.com

WaterCan’s case for investing in water and sanitation in the developing world

This document and accompanying series of educational posters (bilingual) provide information on the global water and sanitation crisis and how the provision of these basic services is critical to supporting poverty alleviation efforts in developing countries.
To learn more click here

 
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