Drops of Change: Reflections on NAYPW’s first year tackling water and climate change issues

This post is part of a monthly series called “Drops of Change” by the North American Youth Parliament for Water (NAYPW), a chapter of the World Youth Parliament for Water (WYPW). For more information on the NAYPW, you can explore their website or contact NAYPW at outreachnaypw@gmail.com.

Written by the NAYPW Leadership Team, including Laina Timberg, Erica “Lynn” Porta, Kate Brown, Lauren Lawson, and Bhagya Galkissa-Dewage.

The North American Youth Parliament for Water’s (NAYPW) first year of operation was led by our unique youth- and interdisciplinary-based perspective. This perspective facilitated early action in core arenas at the intersections of climate and water concerns in North America. Our organizational goals aligned with major challenges facing North America, particularly in areas regarding transboundary and integrated water resources management (IWRM), efforts to increase local communities’ capacities and engagement with aquatic ecosystem protection, and public health (SDGs 6.5, 6.6, 6.6A, 6.6B). We established these priorities in our 2020 operations and our first Strategic Plan, and they guided  this series of blog posts and our other programs, such as our Young Professional’s Blue Peace white paper and North American Clean-up Challenge programs. 


The Youth Perspective

This column, Drops of Change, was one of several programs aiming to raise youth voices and advance the value of interdisciplinary, diverse perspectives on water and climate challenges in North America. Drops of Change featured the voices of students, graduate researchers, and activists from Canada, the United States, and our sister-chapter in Mexico. Articles ranged  from our first member-post by Katie Wampler on her experiences as a wildfire researcher living through the Oregon wildfires in September 2020, to our more recent content highlighting areas of future work necessary to address climate change & water challenges faced by women, wetlands, and communities across Mexico. These  articles covered topics of regional and global importance, and were particularly timely as the USA responded to severe fires in the western states and the new Biden administration expressed renewed interest in climate and water-related challenges.

The youth perspective offered by our leadership and Parliament members brought a powerful viewpoint to our work beyond our Drops of Change partnership with AGWA. The NAYPW also engaged over 120 young water leaders through research, advocacy, awareness raising, and local action. Our first General Assembly, hosted virtually in February 2021, celebrated the successes of the NAYPW and our members. The event brought together young leaders, experts, and organizational partners in the water sector to discuss North American challenges like aquatic ecosystem conservation, transboundary water management, and local community engagement. Our members attending the event expressed support for us to jointly develop programs focused on engaging and elevating marginalized communities in the water space, particularly First Nations and tribal communities in North America. The NAYPW leadership is looking to build this engagement in our coming work.


Engaging our Members through Programs

Our interdisciplinary programs have been key to engaging members, students, and young professionals across North America. Our Blue Peace Workshop, hosted in October 2020 through a joint collaboration with Oregon State University and the University of Toronto, introduced participants to the Blue Peace Index-based methodology for assessing transboundary water management policies and practices for the Columbia River Basin between Canada and the USA. This workshop marked the beginning of our Young Professionals Blue Peace Whitepaper Program for action on SDG 6.5 (Transboundary Water Cooperation and IWRM). The first iteration of this program is focusing on the Columbia River Basin, where researchers funded by Oregon Institute of Water and Watersheds are conducting basin-wide research and will share their findings and recommendations with policy makers in Canada and the USA in September. 

Our Professional Development Webinar Series, launched in February 2021, brings together NAYPW members to learn about new research developments in the water sector and to participate in an interactive workshop to develop professional career skills. Enthusiastic members of the NAYPW recently joined the second webinar of the series, which was held on May 18, 2021 as a joint venture with Xylem Inc., a leader in the water tech industry. 

Attendees of the 2nd Professional Development Webinar held on May 18, 2021

Attendees of the 2nd Professional Development Webinar held on May 18, 2021

Finally, the North American Cleanup Challenge (NACC) is dedicated to the NAYPW’s goal of increasing local grassroots action within the area of SDG 6.6, by protecting freshwater and improving water quality by reducing pollution. On June 12, members, partners, and community advocates will join together in their local communities to clean our streets, parks, forests, watersheds, and shorelines of plastic pollution and other debris threatening local freshwater ecosystems and drinking sources. In this program, we bring the energy and perspective of local youth engagement to address immediate concerns about pollution in our local waterways. Pollution is a rising environmental concern with the increasing volume of discarded face masks from COVID-19 public safety measures accumulating in our waterways and local ecosystems as the next highly-visible source of environmental litter and pollution in communities.

 
The North American Clean Up Challenge is happening on June 12.

The North American Clean Up Challenge is happening on June 12.

 

Making Waves

While the NAYPW is a recently established organization, we are already making waves. In 2020, we were named one of the Top 100 Recovery Projects in Canada, which recognizes our dedication to youth-driven projects focused on building better, sustainable futures for communities. Additionally, we now have four University Hubs established, including at the University of Toronto in Canada, and Oregon State University, Washington State University, and the University of Illinois at Chicago in the USA. The University of Toronto hub is creating local action by running several webinars highlighting water-related research performed by Toronto-based researchers. Through our expanded partnerships we have also established a strong relationship with the Mexico Youth Parliament, which strengthens our ability to work on North American transboundary water management issues from the lenses of youth across the entire continent.

Looking to the Future

The NAYPW is focused on looking to the future, and there is more work to be done. The Blue Peace white paper will be written by September 2021 and  is expected to be published in October. We will continue expanding our membership base and developing and strengthening partnerships to allow the NAYPW to reach the greatest number of youth, to develop vital youth-led water programs and to promote youth voices in decision-making. One of our exciting future developments is our new SDG Impact Assessor position. This will be a permanent position on our Leadership Team and will take on the challenging task of holistically measuring the impact of all of our projects, past and future, on SDG 6. Similar to NAYPW’s other forward-looking activities. The SDG Impact Assessor will design projects to combat anticipated water issues in North America. 

NAYPW is at the forefront of having youth water professionals learn, grow, and be a part of a movement working towards a more sustainable water future in North America. Through forward water issues that are pressing across North America, our programs have been directly tailored to tackle water and climate change-connected challenges with the youth perspective in mind. Networking events, the Blue Peace white paper, professional development workshops, and continent-wide clean ups are some of the ambitious plans we have for NAYPW members and advisers. If you are interested in joining, proposing and running a project, or writing for the blog, you can contact us at outreachnaypw@gmail.com. Whether it’s offering to help members network with you in your field or providing mentorship, NAYPW looks forward to growing with our members and advisers through 2021.

Let’s tackle water and climate issues together!