Reliable water systems.
Safe drinking water and effective wastewater treatment, supported by capable operators, appropriate infrastructure, sustainable operations, and funding.
Nation to Nation W.A.S.H. Project
Water Access,
Security & Heritage.
Indigenous knowledge.
Shared responsibility. Lasting action.
A national Indigenous-led research, engagement, and policy development initiative to gather, protect, and elevate community experiences and priorities for water.
Our intention
From lived experience
to practical change.
Water security is inseparable from community well-being, culture, rights, and responsibility to future generations.
Created by Nation to Nation Water Inc., W.A.S.H. brings community knowledge and lived experience together with technical expertise, environmental analysis, and policy review. Communities help identify the challenges, successful practices, and solutions that matter to them.
The goal is to develop practical calls to action and recommendations for Indigenous and public governments, Indigenous representative organizations, industry, and implementation partners. Wherever possible, these will identify who is responsible, what needs to change, and how progress can be measured.
Healthy watersheds.
Protection of source water, groundwater, water quality and quantity, with attention to environmental change and commercial and industrial impacts.
Living relationships.
Respect for the cultural, spiritual, historical, and intergenerational relationships Indigenous Peoples hold with water, and the authority to guide its future.
What guides the work
Water is life.
Relationships carry
responsibility.
The project respects the distinct rights, laws, governance, histories, and protocols of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples.
Water is life
Water sustains people, lands, animals, medicines, food systems, ceremonies, economies, and generations to come.
Indigenous leadership
Indigenous communities, rights holders, Elders, Knowledge Keepers, youth, operators, and local experts guide the work.
Community experience matters
Lived experience is valid knowledge. Community priorities and proposed solutions belong at the centre of recommendations.
Source water protection
Safe drinking water depends on the quality and quantity of source water, groundwater, and healthy watersheds.
Wastewater is water security
Effective wastewater treatment protects health, land, waterways, wildlife, and downstream communities.
Industry accountability
Industry has a role in preventing, reducing, monitoring, and remedying harmful impacts on water.
Balance and reciprocity
Economic activity must respect communities, water, land, and the environment that sustains them.
Multigenerational stewardship
Decisions must consider long-term effects and responsibility to those yet to come.
Respect for distinct Peoples
First Nations, Inuit, and Métis perspectives remain distinct. Each community brings its own authority and relationship with water.
Knowledge protection
Community knowledge is shared through consent and local protocols. Sacred, restricted, confidential, and community-specific information must be protected.
From listening to action
Three connected phases.
Community direction throughout.
- 01
Listen & document
National survey
Gather perspectives on water systems, cultural relationships, environmental change, operations, funding, governance, and commercial or industrial impacts.
- 02
Explore & develop
Indigenous stakeholder roundtables
Explore community realities, root causes, cultural impacts, responsibilities, and community-led solutions. Develop priorities and calls to action.
- 03
Refine & recommend
National refinement & analysis
Bring findings together through Indigenous-led review, refine recommendations, identify responsible parties, and develop practical implementation pathways.
What the work is intended to produce
Community-informed calls to action, national recommendations, government briefing materials, industry pathways, a public summary, and an implementation roadmap. The emphasis is on useful recommendations, clear responsibilities, and the actions that follow.
An invitation to partnership
Different strengths.
A shared responsibility.
There is more than one way to contribute.
Partners may participate in several roles, according to their knowledge, responsibilities, capacity, and agreed commitments. Explore the roles below to find where your organization can help.
Indigenous Nations, communities & governments
Guide engagement, identify community priorities and participants, contribute approved information, host roundtables, provide cultural and governance guidance, review findings, and help define solutions and implementation priorities.
Participation is welcomed from Elders, Knowledge Keepers, youth, leadership, rights holders, community members, operators, land users, harvesters, and environmental, health, and public works staff.
Discuss community participation ↗Indigenous representative organizations
Support outreach, regional and national engagement, policy development, advocacy, technical coordination, validation, and advancement of recommendations.
Discuss your organization’s role ↗Federal, provincial, territorial & local governments
Contribute policy, program, jurisdictional, funding, infrastructure, environmental, and technical knowledge. Participate in designated review or implementation processes, respond to recommendations, and help coordinate action within your responsibilities.
Discuss government participation ↗Industry & business partners
Share technical and operational expertise, environmental information, monitoring and remediation knowledge, innovation, and implementation experience. Financial or in-kind contributions can support engagement and research, with transparent arrangements and protection of independent findings.
Discuss industry participation ↗Universities, colleges & research partners
Assist with research methods, ethics, analysis, data review, technical validation, student involvement, publication, and knowledge sharing. Explore collaborative research and funding applications in accordance with Indigenous guidance and agreed knowledge protections.
Discuss a research partnership ↗Knowledge & technical partners
Contribute expertise in drinking water, wastewater, source water, groundwater, engineering, environment, health, law, governance, climate, policy, Indigenous knowledge, or related disciplines. Help ground recommendations in local conditions and practical implementation.
Offer knowledge or technical expertise ↗Funders & resource partners
Support meaningful engagement through funding, venues, travel, staffing, technology, communications, equipment, accessibility supports, or other resources. Contributions and responsibilities are established through transparent, separate arrangements.
Discuss financial or in-kind support ↗Supporting organizations & individuals
Endorse the project’s purpose and principles, sign the Charter in the appropriate category, share the invitation, encourage participation, and consider the findings and recommendations in good faith.
Become a supporting signatory ↗A foundation of trust
Participation with
integrity and independence.
The Charter establishes the principles and safeguards for respectful participation.
Read the full CharterCommunity authority and knowledge remain protected.
Participation is voluntary and guided by community protocols. Participants may skip survey questions and specify how their information may be used. Confidential, sacred, restricted, or community-specific knowledge is not to be disclosed without authorization.
Partnership does not confer control.
Funders, governments, industry participants, and other partners have no veto over Indigenous findings or recommendations. Participation is not a substitute for consultation or consent, regulatory approval, or endorsement of a policy, company, development, or technology.
Research and commercial interests stay separate.
Participation does not require a purchase from NTN Water or grant preferred-vendor status. Conflicts of interest must be disclosed, and project data cannot enter a sales database without separate, informed permission.
Your voice. Your knowledge. Your contribution.
Help shape what comes next.
Whether you represent a Nation, community, institution, government, business, or yourself, we welcome a conversation about your role.
- 01
Review the foundation
Read the Founding and Guiding Document and the Charter to understand the purpose, principles, methodology, and participation safeguards.
View documents ↓ - 02
Choose your contribution
Identify your partner role or roles. Discuss survey participation, roundtables, expertise, outreach, research, funding, or other support with the project team.
Start a conversation ↗ - 03
Confirm the next step
To endorse the Charter, select the appropriate category, describe your contribution, and have an authorized representative sign the applicable page. Return it to the project contact and confirm any separate agreements needed.
Download the Charter ↓
What signing means
Signing supports the project’s intent, principles, and respectful Indigenous-led process. It does not create an automatic financial obligation, require endorsement of every future finding, or transfer rights, title, jurisdiction, knowledge, or authority. Specific funding, research, confidentiality, data-sharing, service, and implementation commitments are agreed separately.
Project contact
Patrick Dinsdale
Chief Executive Officer
Nation to Nation Water Inc.
pdinsdale@ntnwater.ca (306) 294-7846
Contact Patrick to discuss participation, return a signed Charter page, or arrange an appropriate way to share survey responses and supporting information. Email links open your email application.
Read. Reflect. Participate.
Project documents.
The full project framework and your starting point for participation.
PDF · 25 pages
Founding & Guiding Document
Purpose, principles, research approach, governance, and intended outcomes.
Download document PDF · 28 pagesProject Charter & Signatory Package
Partner roles, participation safeguards, commitments, and signature pages.
Download Charter Fillable PDF · 15 pagesInitial Community & Stakeholder Survey
Share experiences, priorities, cultural relationships, concerns, and proposed solutions.
Download surveyCompleting the survey: Save a copy and open it in a PDF reader that supports fillable forms. Complete only what you are comfortable sharing, choose your information-use permissions, and contact the project team about returning your response. Share protected knowledge only when you have authority and choose to do so.
Community · Industry · Environment
For the water.
For our communities.
For generations to come.
Clean Water For All.
Join the conversation