Water for Life: Alberta’s Strategy for Sustainability identifies the need to engage governments, stakeholders and the public to collaborate in three types of partnerships to share the responsibility for identifying solutions to watershed issues in Alberta.

To examine water-related issues across the province, the Government of Alberta has established the Alberta Water Council. This multi-stakeholder advisory body will provide guidance on the implementation of Water for Life: Alberta’s Strategy for Sustainability and will make recommendations to the government and other land and water managers, stakeholders, and the public on provincial water issues and their solutions.


Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils are raising awareness about the state of Alberta’s major watersheds. In partnership with the Government of Alberta, municipal and Aboriginal governments and other stakeholders, these regional organizations will participate in creating, implementing, and assessing watershed management plans.

Working in their communities, Watershed Stewardship Groups are already raising awareness and undertaking ‘on-the-ground’ activities to protect and enhance local lakes and streams. These groups are promoting knowledge and best management practices for landholders who, in turn, are making changes to the way they operate. These changes are making improvements to water quality, fish habitat, riparian zones and wetlands within our local watersheds.

Alberta Water Council

Established in 2004, the Alberta Water Council is a multi-stakeholder partnership with 24 members from governments, industry, and non-government organizations. The Alberta Water Council brings together expertise and experience of its members, under a consensus based partnership, to monitor and steward implementation of the Alberta's Water for Life strategy and to champion achievement of the strategy's three outcomes of a safe, secure drinking water supply, healthy aquatic ecosystems, and reliable, quality water supplies for a sustainable economy.

Water for Life: Recommendations for Renewal
On January 30, 2008 the Alberta Water Council released its report with recommendations for the renewal of Alberta's Water for Life strategy. In the report, the Council calls for the Government of Alberta to accelerate action and investment, and take stronger, bolder steps to safeguard Alberta's water sources.
Water for Life: Recommendations for Renewal

Information on the Council and its activities can be found at www.albertawatercouncil.ca

Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils

Under Alberta's Water for Life strategy, Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils (WPACs) have been established for each of Alberta's major watershed basins. These councils are multi-stakeholder non-profit organizations that bring public and private sector stakeholders and individuals in a watershed together to assess the conditions of their watershed and to develop a plan and activities to address watershed issues.

Currently, nine watersheds have organizations formally recognized as Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils:

• Battle River Watershed Alliance
• Beaver River Watershed Alliance
• Bow River Basin Council
• Lesser Slave Watershed Council
• Milk River Watershed Council Canada
• North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance
• Oldman Watershed Council
• Red Deer River Watershed Alliance
• South East Alberta Watershed Alliance

Watershed Planning and Advisory Council's currently under development include:

• Athabasca WPAC

Also, check out the Elbow River Water Partnership and their recent Elbow River Basin Water Management Plan:

• Elbow River Water Partnership

Here is some additional information and maps illustrating all of the various watershed regions managed by the WPAC's:

• Click here...for Advisories & Warnings, Forecaster's Comments, River Ice Reports, Water Supply Outlook, Maps and Data Summaries, and FAQ's for each of Alberta's major river basins (source: Alberta Environment).


• Click here...for an interactive map with web links back to each of Alberta's WPAC organizations (source: Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Sept. 2008).


• Click here...for detailed maps for each of Alberta's major river basins, including a provincial inventory of potential water storage sites (source: MPE Engineering, Sept. 2005).


• Click here...for a Guide for Developing State of the Watershed Reports in Alberta (source: Alberta Environment, Nov. 2008).

Watershed Stewardship Groups

Stewardship of watersheds means Albertans - including landowners, private companies, voluntary organizations, Aboriginal communities and individual citizens - make conscious decisions every day to conserve, protect and enhance Alberta's water and associated fish and wildlife habitat and resources. These efforts occur within a local 'watershed', an area of land which is bounded by topographic features, that drains water to a shared destination such as a lake, river or ocean.

"Watershed Stewardship Group" is a broad term used in the Water for Life strategy to describe diverse types of community partnerships. These partnerships are volunteer-based and actively engaged in environmental stewardship of their local watershed. Such groups are inclusive (they may include individuals, organizations, agriculture, industry, municipalities and other forms of local government) and work to set common goals to achieve shared outcomes.

The Alberta Stewardship Network is working to build connections within the stewardship community to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of stewardship activities in Alberta, eliminate duplication of efforts, and recognize and celebrate the valuable contributions of Alberta's stewards. For more information on Watershed Stewardship Groups and their activities in Alberta, see the Alberta Stewardship Network website.