Water’s Next is a collection of stories about our country’s energized leaders, innovative technologies, quality research, and unique solutions for water challenges. Here, you’ll read about the people and ideas that are making a difference in Canada’s waterscape and beyond.

Two years ago, the Water Canada team had a light bulb moment. Mainstream media coverage of water issues tends to focus on the negatives, highlighting challenges and failures rather than groundbreaking technological and socially innovative solutions. Since we dedicate our publication to the Canadian water sector, we know better. Every day, we hear stories about our country’s energized leaders, emerging technologies, quality research, and unique partnerships—and we wanted to share them with the world.

Enter Water’s Next, our annual collection of Canadian water achievements. In the following pages, you’ll read about the people and ideas that are making a difference in Canada’s waterscape and beyond—from Josephine Mandamin’s personal pledge to raise awareness of Great Lakes protection, to iDUS Controls’ second generation of efficient irrigation technology, to Clearpath Robotics’ unmanned monitoring robot, to WEHUB’s online water data dissemination program.

How do we choose the features? We start with you.

Back in July 2011, Water Canada’s readers were invited to submit nominations under four categories: People, Projects, Business and Innovation. Nominations closed in October.

The Water’s Next selection committee, a group of water experts from varied disciplines from across the country, carefully reviewed the nominations. Divided into teams*, the committee members made some tough decisions. Luckily, Water’s Next grew this year, so teams were invited to select five standout nominations from each category.

Water Canada extends heartfelt thanks to the selection committee members for lending their time and submitting thoughtful comments. We’d also like to congratulate all nominees for their hard work and commitment to making safe, healthy water resources a priority.

We hope this year’s features help counterbalance some of the headline-grabbing, bad-news stories of the past year. You’ve got good news in your hands, and you have your colleagues in Canada’s water sector to thank.