Our wealth is our water. CodeBlue has a plan to secure it.

British Columbia’s watersheds are the source of our health, well-being and natural wealth. Our abundant clean drinking water and wild salmon populations are the envy of the world. Rich and abundant watersheds bring life, health, and prosperity in every corner of our province. Streams, rivers, and lakes are the backbone of our local economies, food systems, forests, fish and wildlife, and survival itself. Put simply, water is life.

Our watersheds are our homes: the creek you fished as a kid, the river your family camped beside every summer, the lake your town was built around. These places hold memory, identity, and livelihood. These watersheds have been tended by First Nations for thousands of years. That living legacy is part of what makes BC's water wealth so extraordinary.

In a time of global uncertainty, our most precious resource is facing bigger threats than ever before. BC’s infrastructure hasn’t kept pace with growth and decades of industrial degradation of watersheds from clearcutting and toxic mine waste to poor water management, combined with a warming climate, are taking a growing toll. Now, the province is fast-tracking new mines and fracking projects, which will accelerate water use exponentially over the next decade.

Without healthy watersheds, British Columbians will pay the price. Contaminated drinking water, wells running dry, farmers losing crops, creeks filled with dying fish, communities devastated by flood waters—the impacts to our material security are getting more severe year by year.

Pollution kills investment. When a watershed is damaged through contaminated groundwater, degraded fisheries, and unreliable water supply, the industries that depend on it leave too. Agriculture, tourism, fisheries, and forestry all need clean water to function.

We don’t have to choose between resource development and healthy watersheds when the rules are clear and enforced. The forests, rivers, and wetlands that store and clean our water are part of the infrastructure we all rely on. What we can’t afford is letting industry pass the costs onto communities and future generations. 

In an increasingly insecure and chaotic world, we need to act now to make our province a stronghold where clean water and vibrant communities thrive. It’s time to defend our watersheds as if our lives depend on them. 

BC communities know their home watersheds best and have already identified the solutions that will secure fresh water today and for future generations. But local people face major barriers in doing this important work because the provincial government has not been doing ITS job to defend our watersheds.

It’s time for that to change.

Here’s what will ensure government does its job on water in the next year:

1. Make big industrial users pay the true cost of using BC’s water and reinvest in our watersheds.

Our water is priceless, and it must never be sold or commodified. BC’s system of water rental rates and fees lets big industries like fracking and mining pay pennies to use our water while British Columbians are stuck with the costs of water pollution and insecurity. This needs to change: big industry needs to pay its fair share and revenue generated must be directly reinvested in safeguarding our freshwater sources.  

2. Get tough on water wasters and polluters. 

Responsible resource development shouldn’t ruin our watersheds by wasting, overusing or polluting our freshwater. Tougher rules, better enforcement, and stronger penalties will make resource companies clean up their act, and create real consequences when they fail to do so.

3. Give local people the power and resources to restore and manage their local water sources. 

BC’s water sources should be managed by the people who know them best and need them most. By providing local people with the funding, training and tools to look after them, we can create a surge of good jobs in every corner of BC as communities work together to monitor, manage and restore their local watersheds.

IT'S TIME WE START TREATING OUR WATERSHEDS LIKE OUR LIVES DEPEND ON THEM. 

Please do your part today. Take Action.

WANT A DEEPER DIVE?

Read the detailed CodeBlue BC Plan to learn what watershed security looks like in action.