Five Women Water Heroes Worth Watching

In marking of Change.org's international water Blog Action Day, meet some women who are leading local, national and international efforts to ensure all of the planet's 6.8 billion people have access to safe, clean water worldwide.

1) Alexandra Cousteau

As a scion of the most famous water family, Alexandra Cousteau is continuing the tradition through her leadership at Blue Legacy International. Traveling the globe as a young child with her famous grandfather—Jacques-Yves Cousteau—and the rest of her family instilled Alexandra with a strong sense of understanding and appreciation for the diversity of our environment and its fragility.

As an impassioned advocate on water quality and policy, Alexandra leads global expeditions and develops savvy media tools to inspire people worldwide to be water activists.  You will probably recognize her face as she’s frequently on the Discovery Channel’s Planet Green, with her brother Philippe, Jr. She also was honored as a National Geographic “Emerging Explorer” and a U.N. “Earth Trustee.”  Follow Alexandra’s current 14,500 mile expedition across the US and learn how you can get involved today.

2) Wenonah Hauter

The Executive Director of Food and Water Watch is leading national efforts to overhaul our ailing water infrastructure through her group’s campaign, Renew America’s Water. It will require $22 billion in funding. This might sound like a hefty price tag, but the alternative is a nation that cannot provide water for its citizens. Wenonah is also leading efforts against corporations gobbling up our public water sources (municipalities, bottled water, shipping water around the country and globe. For example, trillions of gallons of Alaskan water are being sent and sold in the Middle East).

You’ll also find her advocating for smart farm legislation and practices. Growing water-heavy crops like corn and soy in desert climates to feed our insatiable processed diets isn’t smart for our environment or our health.  Wenonah isn’t alone and takes comfort in the global solidarity for water issues. We can be American and global patriots starting today by skipping bottled water and getting involved with the campaign to Renew America’s Water.

3) Natalie Roy

She’s the Executive Director of the Clean Water Network, which represents 1,200 water groups—from tiny community groups to giant national advocacy groups (representing a whopping 5 million people)—all committed to ensuring  safe, clean water for all. While she notes that people often assume there’s a “water fairy who makes water magically appear at the tap,” Natalie herself is a magical hero who has devoted the past 28 years of her life to clean water. And though the work is fraught with challenges (“We’re managing pollution rather than reducing it..."), she’s inspired by her kids and husband to continue every day.

Natalie says we “need leaders with guts,” which certainly won’t happen today or overnight. But, rather than waiting for them to magically appear, here’s some ways she recommends we can all start to be water heroes: use a rain barrel at home, skip bottled water, volunteer at a local watershed group, contact your elected officials, take shorter showers, plant trees, and lobby for more parks and green spaces.

4) Renee Sharp

The spitfire director of Environmental Working Group’s California office is a well-seasoned advocate who is committed to fighting policies—from chemical laws to energy legislation--that could have “irreversible negative consequences for future generations.” And they’re  all polluting our most precious resource: water.  She’s inspired by science and moral leaders.

Quoting Einstein, she notes, “our technological prowess as a civilization has outpaced our ability to follow our internal moral compass and make wise choices for future generations.” Ghandi, the Dalai Lama and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. also guide her work as they “have not only sounded the call for compassionate action, but inspired people actually to take such action.” For Renee, personal actions can start today:  boycott bottled water, reduce your greenhouse gas emissions, and call your elected officials, starting with the White House, to demand more stringent drinking water regulations.  Also, sign the group's petition to the EPA to limit perchlorate, a toxin polluting our water and our bodies.

5) Miriam Torres

You would think Miriam Torres has a plush job since she spends much time in the Coachella Valley, a weekend resort community known for its natural hot springs about an hour east of Los Angeles. However, she’s there because she's working with communities who not only skip the hot springs but can’t even drink their water.

It’s a startling part of America that you expect to find abroad, not in our country. Miriam works with extremely poor families who live in trailer parks—hidden from the region’s resorts and upscale housing—whose groundwater is highly polluted with arsenic and other contaminants. One community arsenic levels were 63 parts per billion, well over the EPA-allowed limit of 10 parts per billion. There, she met a 12-year-old girl hauling jugs of drinking water in 100 degree heat a mile back to her trailer. And this situation isn’t unique to just Coachella Valley, but is common in agricultural communities and other low-income communities dotting the national landscape. Despite the dire situation of these communities, Miriam is inspired by the young people she works with who she believes are “the driving force for a better future for all of us.” Whether you’re in Los Angeles, elsewhere in California or in another state, Miriam urges everyone to get involved to ensure everyone has access to safe, clean water.

Photo credit: Courtesy of mikebaird via Flickr

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