You are helping an African village get access to enough drinking water. Money and resources are limited. Which projects to choose? Which one to do first?
Play Water Alert, an online game from UNICEF. Make choices and see what the results will be for the villagers.
Here are some Canadian projects that have helped to protect aquatic ecosystems.
Saving a Creek in Alberta
Pincher Creek in Alberta was threatened by blueweed, a plant that was crowding out native plants along the banks. Every summer, a group of neighbours from along the creek met to weed out the blueweed.
The Pincher Creek Watershed Group also built fences to keep cattle out of the creek. They also built an urban wetland in the town of Pincher Creek. In 2007, they won a national award from Wildlife Habitat Canada.
Two young volunteers sample purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) in a wetland near Sackville, New Brunswick.
Restoring Marshes in New Brunswick
"The Wetheads"were more than 100 high school students who were runners-up in the Hometown Heroes contest in 2008. The contest is run by Earth Day Canada.
The students started a project for wetland conservation in Sackville, New Brunswick. They helped restore part of the Tantramar Marsh and taught many others about wetlands.
Good Practices for Toronto, Ontario
Even in a city, storm water can pollute streams, rivers and lakes. In Toronto, Ontario, it takes only about 15 to 30 minutes for pollutants picked up by rain runoff to travel through storm sewers from backyards to rivers.
The Homeowners' Guide to Rainfall offers ideas to Torontonians for collecting rainwater for garden and household use.
The web site includes "Five Things You Can Do for Your River" as well as "A Low-Salt Diet for Ontario's Roads and Rivers".
At Bowie Seamount. The transparent tubes lined with glowing dots are animals. They are invertebrates called salps (Salpa sp.).
Protecting a Seamount in the Pacific
An underwater mountain off Canada's Pacific Ocean coast is now protected.
In 2008, Bowie Seamount became one of Canada's marine protected areas. It's a marine oasis near the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia.
The mountain peak is just 25 metres below the ocean surface and its foot is more than 3000 metres down.
Seamounts attract whales, dolphins and sea birds. About 240 species of organisms live around the upper 300 metres of the seamount, including more than 50 fish species.
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