Our sincere thanks to Kira Burger, one of the 6 dedicated souls who walked to Queen’s Park in Toronto from Guelph on a “Walk for Water”….

It’s raining. The sky is the colour of the pavement that stretches out before our tired legs. I see Toronto’s CN Tower hovering on the horizon, appearing more a mirage in the mist than a physical reality. It’s 7am on a Sunday morning in Burlington. Mixed in with the hum of cars passing us by, I can hear the laughter of groggy voices, and the patter of five pairs of feet keeping an optimistic pace on their second day of a long journey. We are Walking for Water.

What does it mean to walk for water? For some, it means dedicating hours out of every day to walk to a well, river or lake to fetch as much water as can be carried home in buckets. For others, it means walking to a tap in their kitchen or bathroom that will provide a seemingly endless flow at the turn of a handle. For seven individuals in Guelph, it meant walking 102 kilometres to Queen’s Park in Toronto in defence of a simple principle: access to adequate clean, potable water is a basic human right.

The concept is simple, but the implications are far reaching. How do we ensure that safe water is available to all, regardless of one’s ability to pay for it? To do this, we need to re imagine how we define water in a world where we have come to understand value through dollars and cents. Do we define water as a commodity and charge the market with the responsibility of distributing this human right? Do we prioritize immediate economic development over long term watershed protection? When our governments fail to bring us water that is as hard, or soft, or crisp, or chlorine free, or – more critically – as safe as we want, do we send them the message that we need something changed, or do we shell out cash for a private option and then send them the message that no one’s drinking the water they provide anyhow?

We can imagine a different system. People define what can be bought and sold, and what deserves the utmost protection. If we’ve decided that we cannot buy and sell human life, should we be able to buy and sell the basis of that life? Under what circumstances? We needn’t take for granted that things are just the way they are; what we’ve created, we can also change.

Our Walk for Water didn’t solve these challenging questions. We didn’t garner the attention of government or big media. Our walk didn’t have any measurable outcomes. What our Walk for Water did was plant a seed. It brought seven people together in a way that no amount of letter writing or campaign designing could have. It inspired new and creative approaches to action and community engagement. It brought new energy and life to Wellington Water Watchers. The seed planted on our walk has sprouted relationships and ideas that will continue to produce for years to come.

A 102 kilometre Walk for Water. Was is crazy? Yes. Was it worth it? Absolutely.