Three inaugural CWN awards were presented at Blue Cities 2025 to honour outstanding individuals who are shaping the future of water in Canada. Congratulations to the recipients!

Nicola Crawhall and other members of the Global Water Research Coalition met in Cape Town, South Africa in March. Five strategic issues were identified as priorities for 2025-2026. CWN will participate in a GWRC working group on biosolids management.

In April, Canadians elected Mark Carney as the new Prime Minister. With this transition in leadership, the federal government has set new priorities that will directly impact municipalities, particularly in areas of housing, infrastructure and urban development.

In May, CWN hosted water leaders at Blue Cities, our flagship event for the municipal water sector. The benefit of bringing 200 smart, experienced people together to focus on the big challenges is that they come up with great insights and strategies.

Our Blue Cities session, Planning in the Face of Uncertainty, introduced the Canadian water sector to adaptive planning, a globally emerging approach to decision-making to address future uncertainty and accompanying risks.

This timely panel discussion explored how Canadian water utilities can lead the charge toward net zero water operations. Municipal leaders, private sector innovators and global experts shared practical strategies for reducing GHGs in the water sector.

The last 5-10 years have seen significant advances in new molecular methods that more precisely detect what is in our water and measure health impacts. These methods can help municipalities rapidly trace and identify sources of contaminants, improve beach quality and determine impacts from sewage discharge.