We’re live!
The Canada WaterPortal started as the Alberta WaterPortal in 2006 and began as an Alberta-focused response to an Alberta-wide water management strategy, “Water for Life”, first released that year.
With a mission of educating and informing people about the value of water as a vital resource, we have been providing objective, grounded information to enable better water management practices ever since 2006. We have created and hosted content, growing our presence, reputation and user base. Just from May to October 2024, we had around 94,000 page views. What became obvious a few years ago was that internet viewers, like water, ignore jurisdictional boundaries. In recognition of our growing Canada-wide and international traffic (now roughly 50%), we decided to rename ourselves the “Canada WaterPortal”. The regulatory process was lengthy but we are now officially the “Canada WaterPortal Society” and we are very pleased to announce that our new web site, the Canada WaterPortal, has launched with updated content, better navigation and improved mobile experience. (In case you’re wondering, our old site is still live and will remain so for a few more weeks as we complete our transition.)
Over the years, we’ve partnered with industry experts and organizations ranging from governments to other charities and associations. Traces of those collaborations are evident across our site. For example:
- The extensive flood mitigation-related content commissioned by the Government of Alberta in 2013/14 following the then-worst natural-hazard disaster in Canadian history in southern Alberta.
- The content on current irrigation projects we’ve hosted on behalf of Irrigating Alberta and the work of the Stormwater Management Cooperative.
- Hosting the results of many years of watershed modelling in the South Saskatchewan River Basin and Athabasca River Basin.
- Exploring the critical water nexus of energy, food and people which was a project funded by a range of partners.
- Curriculum-adjacent educational content on water and agriculture created in collaboration with Inside Education.
Our content covers a wide range of topics, including climate change, drought, and water governance, and also features blog posts. Additionally, we also offer a free weekday news clipping service which delivers water-related news from around the world with a (free) subscription-based weekly compendium of the prior week’s news.
Because we started in Alberta, much of our content is Alberta-focused. However, most of our users are now coming from outside of Alberta. And so, with our new shift to a Canada-wide focus, we wish to expand our content and our collaborative relationships with people and organizations beyond Alberta. We have deep (sorry! We couldn’t resist.) experience with water and will continue to build on that. We want to develop relationships with other water folk across Canada and collaborate on projects of shared interests.
If you have objective, well-grounded content and are looking to build on the synergies of a recognized source for water information – talk to us. If you have something to say and can back it up with publicly available references, consider writing a guest blog with us. And of course, we’re always happy to chat about water.
There is so much good work happening in the water space across Canada. Let’s share it and celebrate it on the WaterPortal.
About Andrew Wilson
Andrew Wilson, Executive Director, Canada WaterPortal Society: water enthusiast with a background in disaster mitigation, policy, business continuity and information technology