"In recent years it has become clear that civil society needed its own place to discuss solutions to the problems facing the world's water and the growing inequity of access to it."

"This conference has been created to provide an opportunity to unite the protection of water with every human's fundamental right to water because, truly, a safe viable environment is as essential to the right to life as any other. The Council of Canadians, through its Blue Planet Project, has worked to bring together as many activists from around the world as possible so that we can focus on solutions and action to take forward in this important lead up to Rio + 10 next year in Johannesburg."