Who We Are
Waterkeeper Alliance ensures that the world’s Waterkeeper groups are as connected to each other as they are to their local waters, organizing the fight for clean water into a coordinated global movement.
Our Movement's Focus & Impact
Our Vision & Mission
We are global movement united for clean, healthy, and abundant water for all people and the planet with a mission to protect our right to clean water in communities around the world.
Our Beliefs
Water is life;
Healthy watersheds connect and sustain us all;
Clean water is a basic right for all living beings;
Waterkeepers are guardians of this right, fiercely defending, enforcing, and promoting just and equitable clean water laws;
Each Waterkeeper has a unique voice, reflecting our diverse communities and watersheds;
As a movement, we are strong together when we lift up each others’ voices and the voices of the communities we serve.
Every day around the world, polluters are poisoning our waterways, and people everywhere are suffering the consequences.
The Waterkeeper movement was started by a band of blue-collar fishermen on New York’s Hudson River in 1966 because industrial polluters were destroying their way of life. Their tough, grassroots brand of environmental activism sparked the Hudson’s miraculous recovery and inspired others to launch Waterkeeper groups around the world.
Today, Waterkeeper Alliance unites more than 300 Waterkeeper groups that are on the front lines of the planetary environmental crisis, patrolling and protecting nearly six million square miles of rivers, lakes, and coastal waterways on six continents. Together, we fight every day on behalf of the common good to protect public health, the environment, and sustainable livelihoods.
Our global movement continuously strives to be an accurate reflection of the communities and waters we collectively work to protect with an array of perspectives, languages, cultures, religions, lived experiences, and legal and political frameworks.
We are committed to using the power of our proven model to remedy environmental injustices and inequities by amplifying the voices of communities lacking political clout and fair representation.
Whether on the water tracking down polluters, in courtrooms enforcing environmental laws, advocating in town meetings or teaching in classrooms, Waterkeepers speak for the waters they defend—with the collective strength of Waterkeeper Alliance and the backing of their local communities.
Remembering Rick Dove
Honoring the life and legacy of Rick Dove, the first Neuse Riverkeeper and a Founder of Waterkeeper Alliance.
Strategic Plan
We have a plan that guides our vision to protect our right to clean water in communities around the world.