I believe that it is up to people like us to find the language, create the images and imagine the solutions that will allow us to break out of the vicious circle that threatens public health by threatening our landscapes and water sources . . . Together we can work toward this end. And, we can do it with humour. We can do it with style. And we can do it with grace.

Try as we might, parts of North America may not escape the impacts of the global water crisis. The same kinds of water supply and quality issues that have appeared around our crowded planet are already beginning to present themselves here. Unfortunately, this is occurring at a time when, as a direct result of declining global food production, the world is beginning to rely more heavily than ever on agricultural communities in North America to help meet increasingly unattainable food-production goals.

Instead of waiting for a water crisis of our own, North Americans may well wish to put the lessons learned elsewhere in the world into active practice. By using the example of others to put our own water-management house in order, North America can possibly avoid the same kinds of problems other countries are facing with respect to the protection of water resources. At the same time, we can employ enlightened attitudes toward the management of water resources to advance many of our own ecological and economic sustainability goals.

Passionately conceived, clearly written and citing concrete examples from all over the world, Restoring the Flow is an approachable yet authoritative source, one of the many implements concerned citizens, government officials, businesspeople and policymakers can use and reuse in understanding and addressing this ever-growing global crisis.

Bob Sandford is the author or editor of some 20 books on the history and heritage of the Canadian West. He began his work with UN-linked initiatives as chair of the United Nations International Year of Mountains in 2002. He also chaired the United Nations International Year of Fresh Water and Wonder of Water Initiative in Canada in 2003/04. These celebrations focused on the growing importance of water to ecological and cultural heritage in Canada. 

Bob is presently chair of the United Nations International Decade “Water for Life” Partnership in Canada, an initiative that aims to advance long-term water quality and availability issues in response to climate change in this country and abroad. He is also director of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative, a research and public-policy arm of the University of Lethbridge that promotes understanding of climate impacts on river systems originating in the Rocky Mountains. Bob was the first Canadian to be invited to sit on the advisory committee for the Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy, a biennial global public-policy forum that examines solutions to our planet’s water crisis.