2019 Water is Life Alliance (WILA) Summit: Water Justice in a Climate Emergency

Join an international community of people & groups working together to ensure water justice throughout the Great Lakes Basin. This event is free to attend.

Register here to attend

Tentative Schedule

Friday — Member Groups Only
6:00 – 10:00 pm: Meeting followed by dinner and mingling

Saturday — Public Welcome
8:00 – 9:00 am: Arrival, Registration Check-in
9:00 – 12:30 pm: Keynote Speakers, featuring Maude Barlow, Lela George, Holly T. Bird, and Claire McClinton
12:30 – 1:30 pm: Lunch (please be sure to purchase your lunch when registering)
1:30 – 6:00 pm: Panel series, Q&A
8:00 – 10:00 pm: Live entertainment, featuring…James Gordon’s Emergency Climate Musical

Sunday — Member Groups Only
9:00 – 3:00 pm: WILA Member Meeting and strategy outlook

Who is WILA?
The Water is Life Alliance was formed at the 2017 Strengthening the Great Lakes Commons Summit, that was held in Flint, MI, USA. Dozens of grassroots nonprofits and tribal nations came together with a common goal of working together to protect the waters throughout the basin. We continue to work together to protect the sacred waters of the Great Lakes Basin and secure the human right to water in all our communities. Water is life, and we plan to protect it. Learn more about who WILA is here.

The Water is Life Alliance works across Great Lakes borders to secure the human right to water, shrink the bottled water industry, and secure publicly controlled and accountable water infrastructure.

Great Lakes Commons is a member of this Alliance and has participated in strategy session this year in Detroit, an online forum last year, and an groundbreaking summit in Flint before that.

Recently, the Alliance has hired a coordinator (Jennifer Fassbender) to advance our shared goals. Check back here in a few weeks to see our 2019 agenda. In the meantime, these 3 videos help rally our voices and power.