Building Water Bridges

How have we brought people together in the past?  These events have taken place to build partnerships and understand the limitations to better water and coastal management. 

Headwaters and Headlands 2 the Ocean: Exploring Collaboration for our Coastal and Water Futures
The EAC partnered with four other organizations for this event.  A two-day working session as held in October 2008 to explore the potential for collaborations amongst water and coastal organizations and sectors.  H2O lead directly to revitalizing the Water Caucus housed in the Nova Scotia Environment Network and in which there are over 20 member organizations and growing.  It also spawned a number of other events, collaborations, and publications.

Streamside Sketches: Water Stories from Nova Scotia
A reportresearched and prepared by Jocelyne Rankin in which stories about water issues and water management were gathered from nine community-based watershed organizations across the province, representing the breadth of water issues facing Nova Scotia.  These stories highlight actions taken at the community level and the need for a provincial water framework to support these activities in a concerted and effective way. The Streamside Sketches document has been a good tool to build a better understanding of water issues in NS, and build a “water community” connecting groups that do not always share information or work together.
View or download the report here! [pdf, .3 MB]

Wading In: Watershed Management in Nova Scotia
Working closely with the Clean Annapolis River Project, the EAC helped organize this two-day workshop where participants from three levels of government, first nations, hydro electric generation, forestry, agriculture, NGO’s and other sectors related to water attended presentations on water issues as seen by each sector.  They were then guided through facilitated breakout sessions in order to come to a better understanding of what the barriers and opportunities for watershed management are in Nova Scotia and what will be required to get us there.  Look for the next Watershed Management workshop.

What’s next?
A policy discussion paper from the Water Coordinator is expected in the summer of 2009 as well as a joint policy brief between the Coastal and Water Coordinators for both the Water Strategy and the Sustainable Coastal Development Strategy by the fall of 2009.  The Water and Coastal Coordinators will spend time doing public engagement and speaking with community groups about the EAC’s policy recommendations.

Coastal Issues Committee

Phone: (902) 442-5046
Fax: (902) 405-3716

How do you like your coast? Take action on coastal issues that matter to you. The Coastal Issues Committee meets at the EAC on the last Thursday of every month at 5:30PM.