Born and raised in the “River City” also known as Winnipeg, I am grateful to be surrounded by the many bodies of water in and around where I live. While the Red River hasn’t always been fondly discussed at times, it gives a powerful backdrop to many beautiful attractions in Winnipeg, like the Forks. The various lakes that are within as little as an hour’s drive of the city are not only home to a lot of Manitobans but also provide many of us from the city with wonderful getaways and beach life each weekend.
Unfortunately, not everyone is mindful of the damage that can be done to these bodies of water. Whether it’s littering, or dumping garbage, never picking up after ourselves, we can and have been greatly affecting the environment. Recently, a great group of folks here in Winnipeg shifted their focus to cleaning up Lake Winnipeg.
Lake Winnipeg is the second largest watershed in Canada and the 10th largest lake in the world (by surface area). The Red River is just one of 3 rivers that make up 60% of the total river flow into the lake. Lake Winnipeg is home to many popular beaches such as Grand Beach, Winnipeg Beach and my childhood favourite Victoria Beach.
photo credit: Victoria Beach via photopin (license)
RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) has embarked upon an amazing initiative called the Blue Water Project, #RBCBlueWater. From June 2 – 7th , RBC employees across Canada gave back to their communities by getting outside, cleaning up local waterfronts and protecting local bodies of water. Take a look at a snippet of what they accomplished:
Throughout the video there are some pretty sobering comments and statistics about our fresh water.
Only 1% of the Earth’s water is available for our use!
Numerous communities participated in the RBC Blue Water Project, and the initiative in Winnipeg was on of 850 makeovers worldwide!
Wondering how you can help? RBC provides great information and resources on their website to assist you with education and awareness of how to protect our water.
For further information, visit RBC’s Facebook Page or follow RBC on Twitter.
Very important to take care of our lakes, rivers and bodies of water. Living in Ontario we are blessed to having many of these and it always great to see people/companies helping to keep them clean and looked after for future generations.