{"id":50519,"date":"2022-11-26T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-11-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/?p=50519"},"modified":"2023-04-07T16:27:50","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T20:27:50","slug":"politique-nationale-de-leau-20-ans-avancee-surplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/politique-nationale-de-leau-20-ans-avancee-surplace\/","title":{"rendered":"National Water Policy turns 20: progress remains on hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

OPEN LETTER<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 26, a few days before the holding of the COP15 on biodiversity<\/a>, it will be the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the National water policy<\/a>. This Policy should lead to a substantial improvement in water quality and allow us to sustain the use of our waterways. To achieve this, it was based on seven principles including sustainable and integrated water management by watershed, a user-pays and polluter-pays approach for the use of water, the reconciliation of uses and the call for a collective commitment for the protection, restoration and development of water.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years later, where are we?\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is undeniable: the creation of 40 watershed organizations (OBV) which crisscross the territory has made it possible to establish better sustainable and integrated water management. Their task is colossal; they must ensure that rivers and their tributaries are protected through consultation approaches between all stakeholders and through various projects on the ground. However, underfunded and lacking real decision-making powers, it is difficult for them to impose the priorities of their watersheds on municipalities, MRCs and the government, compromising the implementation of the water master plans that they elaborate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The adoption of stricter laws for the protection of water, including the Law affirming the collective nature of water resources and aiming to strengthen their protection<\/em>, is another progress resulting from the National Water Policy. However, we are slow to see the effects of these reinforcements on water protection. The 2020 report on the state of Quebec's water resources and aquatic ecosystems indicates that several key indicators have deteriorated, that a large number of rivers are in poor condition, particularly in agricultural areas, that more than half of Native species of reptiles and amphibians are in a precarious situation and the overall naturalness of waterways is generally low.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sur le principe de la conciliation des usages, la privatisation des berges\u00a0rend les plans d\u2019eau de moins en moins accessibles au grand public. Les propri\u00e9taires riverains subissent par ailleurs les contre-coups de la croissance exponentielle du nombre et de la puissance de bruyantes embarcations \u00e0 moteur. Quant aux pr\u00e9l\u00e8vements d\u2019eau sur le territoire, la collecte et le partage des donn\u00e9es sont encore insuffisants pour pr\u00e9venir les conflits d\u2019usage. Les manques d\u2019eau dans le sud du Qu\u00e9bec sont d\u00e9sormais r\u00e9currents en \u00e9t\u00e9. On a m\u00eame vu des cas o\u00f9 des agriculteurs devaient se faire livrer de l\u2019eau afin d\u2019abreuver le b\u00e9tail, un ph\u00e9nom\u00e8ne jug\u00e9 impensable il y a 20 ans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now, what are the next steps?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The climate mobilization program<\/a> recently announced recognizes the importance of citizen initiatives in the fight against climate change. It is high time that the State recognizes the importance of citizen initiatives for the protection of water as well. Citizens' committees can play a key role in protecting water in Quebec. They alert, denounce, keep an eye on things and highlight problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years\u2026 And so few results. A major project is required to revive the vision of participatory democracy to face new realities and future challenges. A vision to be renewed not only by experts, elected officials and environmental groups, but also by representatives of civil society.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking forward to a National Water Summit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

By Andr\u00e9 B\u00e9langer, general director of Fondation Rivi\u00e8res, and Rebecca P\u00e9trin, general director ofEmergency Water<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo\u00a0: Matthew Henry, Burst<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Open letter \u2013 On November 26, a few days before the COP15 on biodiversity, it will be the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the National Water Policy. <\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50520,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,24,77,83],"class_list":["post-50519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communiques","tag-acces-a-leau","tag-biodiversite","tag-politique","tag-qualite-de-leau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fondationrivieres.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}