Drought

LAUNCHING A NORTH AMERICAN WATER DIALOGUE

Confronting Inequality and Building Resilience through Cooperation

by Circle of Blue

Across North America, access to clean, reliable water remains strikingly unequal. While Canada holds 20% of the world’s freshwater resources, many communities in the United States and Mexico struggle with scarcity, contamination, and inadequate infrastructure. From drought-plagued Sonora and Nuevo León to depleted aquifers in Arizona and California, the continent’s water crisis is both urgent and uneven. Even in Canada, water scarcity is an increasing concern due to rising demand from human activity, climate change, and regional droughts. Indigenous communities are particularly affected, facing long-standing challenges in accessing safe drinking water due to inadequate infrastructure and chronic underinvestment.

These disparities are now colliding with powerful economic and demographic forces—climate change, urban growth, industrial expansion, and the rapid rise of water-intensive sectors like energy, data centers, and semiconductors. The result is growing stress on shared water systems, rising social tensions, and an increasingly visible threat to North America’s competitiveness and environmental security.

While bulk water exports from Canada to drought-stricken areas is unlikely due to environmental risks, potential depletion of domestic water systems, the creation of risky dependencies, and most importantly domestic politics, there is another way forward. The time has come to launch a North American Water Dialogue: a sustained, inclusive, and forward-looking platform for regional cooperation on water access, resilience, and innovation. This dialogue would bring together national, state/provincial, and local governments; Indigenous leaders; industry; civil society; and scientific communities across the continent to examine shared challenges, explore best practices, and chart a course for equitable and sustainable water governance.

Full Article by Duncan Wood on Circle of Blue