Protecting water begins with understanding it.
Understand Water is a water-literacy, public-engagement, and policy-translation initiative that helps people recognize water as more than a resource delivered through a tap. Water is a living and interconnected system that sustains public health, communities, ecosystems, cultures, economies, infrastructure, and future generations.
Led through the research and advocacy work of Michelle Jadormeo, Understand Water brings together freshwater science, public policy, community knowledge, Indigenous perspectives, and lived experience. Its purpose is to make complex water issues understandable, relevant, and actionable for people who may not work professionally in the water sector but whose lives, communities, and decisions are nevertheless shaped by water.
Water literacy involves more than knowing the stages of the water cycle. It means understanding the relationships between natural water systems and human systems, including how water is sourced, treated, distributed, consumed, governed, polluted, protected, and valued. Academic research describes water literacy as a combination of water-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours that enables people to make informed decisions. It also requires understanding the interactions among water, human settlements, food, energy, public health, ecosystems, economic activity, and resource management.
Understand Water translates these interconnected issues into clear and accessible information. It examines the institutions, policies, technologies, industries, and everyday decisions that affect water quality, availability, infrastructure, and access. It also asks essential questions: Where does a community’s water come from? Who makes decisions about it? What evidence informs those decisions? Whose knowledge and experiences are included? Who benefits, who carries the risks, and how can communities participate meaningfully in protecting their water?
The initiative is grounded in the principle that sound water governance begins with sound understanding. Reliable water information is necessary for communities, governments, businesses, researchers, and residents to identify risks, evaluate competing demands, prepare for climate impacts, and hold decision-makers accountable. This reflects the United Nations–World Bank recommendation that water decisions should be evidence-based and supported by stronger, more open, and more accessible water data.
At the same time, understanding water cannot be limited to technical measurements. Water carries environmental, social, cultural, spiritual, political, and economic meaning. Understand Water therefore encourages an inclusive approach that respects different forms of knowledge and creates space for Indigenous histories, teachings, relationships, and responsibilities concerning water. Waterlution similarly describes community-focused water learning as work that honours Indigenous voices and diverse perspectives while developing more inclusive responses to water and climate challenges.
Through policy research, plain-language educational material, public communication, workshops, storytelling, community dialogue, and collaborative partnerships, Understand Water seeks to close the distance between water experts and the public. Its aim is not only to distribute information, but also to help people ask better questions, participate confidently in public decisions, recognize their connection to local waters, and move from awareness toward stewardship.
For Michelle, this work includes drawing attention to emerging freshwater pressures that are often difficult for the public to see. Her research on artificial intelligence and data-centre infrastructure, for example, examines how rapidly expanding digital systems may create new demands on freshwater and water infrastructure, and whether existing Canadian policies provide sufficient reporting, oversight, transparency, and public accountability.
Ultimately, Understand Water works toward a water-literate society in which people understand how water supports their lives, recognize how their choices and institutions affect water, and possess the knowledge and confidence to participate in its protection. It treats understanding not as the final goal, but as the beginning of responsible policy, equitable governance, community resilience, and lasting water stewardship.
To make water knowledge accessible, connect freshwater evidence with public policy and community experience, and empower people to participate meaningfully in protecting and governing water.
This mission reflects the broader understanding that a well-managed water cycle is essential to human society, environmental integrity, climate adaptation, health, education, livelihoods, food security, and equality. Access to safe water and sanitation is also recognized as a human right.
A future in which every person understands their relationship with water and has the knowledge, opportunity, and confidence to help protect it.
Understand Water envisions communities where water decisions are transparent, evidence-based, inclusive, and attentive to both present needs and the rights and well-being of future generations.
Understand Water explains freshwater systems in clear language, helping audiences understand watersheds, groundwater, water quality, water use, infrastructure, conservation, pollution, and climate-related risks. The objective is to move beyond isolated facts and show how natural systems, public institutions, industries, communities, and individual decisions are connected.
Water policy can be technically complex and divided among different governments, agencies, laws, and regulatory systems. Understand Water translates this complexity into accessible public knowledge, clarifying how decisions are made, what evidence is available, where policy gaps exist, and how communities can participate.
The initiative explores how technological and economic change affects freshwater. This includes the water requirements of artificial intelligence and data centres, changing infrastructure demands, water reuse, industrial growth, urban development, and the need for transparent reporting and forward-looking regulation.
Understand Water recognizes that strong water governance requires more than scientific or technical expertise. Community experience, cultural knowledge, local observation, and Indigenous relationships with water offer essential perspectives on stewardship, responsibility, resilience, and long-term decision-making.
Young people are not only future water leaders; they are present-day researchers, educators, organizers, innovators, and community members. Inspired by approaches used in Waterlution programming, Understand Water supports participatory learning, leadership development, creative communication, dialogue, and opportunities for young people to contribute to water solutions.
Understanding becomes meaningful when it informs behaviour, public participation, institutional accountability, and policy change. The initiative therefore connects education with practical pathways for action, from learning about a local watershed and participating in consultations to supporting community organizations, evaluating public policies, and advocating for responsible water governance.
Michelle believes that protecting water begins with understanding it.
Through Understand Water, she makes freshwater policy, governance, science, and emerging water challenges more accessible to the people and communities affected by them. Her goal is to help others see water not simply as something that comes from a tap, but as an interconnected natural, social, cultural, political, and economic system that sustains every aspect of life.
Understanding water means knowing where it comes from, how it moves, how it is treated and used, who governs it, what pressures it faces, and whose knowledge is considered when decisions are made. It also means recognizing the responsibilities owed to the ecosystems, communities, and future generations that depend on healthy water.
Her work connects evidence-based policy research with public education, community experience, and inclusive dialogue. She examines both familiar water concerns and emerging issues, including the growing freshwater demands associated with artificial intelligence and data-centre infrastructure. By translating complex research and policy questions into accessible information, she hopes to help people ask informed questions, participate meaningfully in public decisions, and understand how their own lives are connected to water governance.
Understand Water is also grounded in the recognition that water has meanings and values that cannot be captured through technical data alone. Scientific evidence is essential, but so are Indigenous knowledge, community histories, cultural relationships, lived experience, and local stewardship. Responsible water governance must create space for these perspectives and approach water with respect, accountability, and care.
In her view, understanding is not a passive activity. It is the foundation for advocacy, participation, better policy, and meaningful action. When people understand water, they are better equipped to value it, protect it, and make decisions that support a more equitable and resilient water future.