Disasters create connections
“Residents of Lake Huron or Lake Erie are unaware that activities in their region are affecting the quality and quantity of water downstream, sometimes as far as the river mouth in Quebec,” the geographer continues.
Lauren Touchant explains that local residents are particularly attached to the water “that is nearby”. Lake Ontario shapes Toronto’s identity, while residents of Thunder Bay identify with Lake Superior and residents of Kingston with the Thousand Islands archipelago.
Downstream, Quebecers are closely linked to the Saint Lawrence River, “to which they attach great cultural and historical value,” explains Alexandre Lillo.
Aside from provincial divisions and cultural differences, residents nevertheless have similar concerns. The issues of maritime transport, water pollution, climate change impacts, coastal erosion, flooding and drought can thus be found at all four corners of the watershed.
“Natural disasters are often the reason people who live near a watershed get together,” says Karine Dauphin, executive director of the Regroupement des organizations de bassins versants du Québec (ROBVQ). They realize that their water comes from elsewhere, upstream, and that they live in a much larger water system than they imagined.
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