Clean Water on a Global Stage: Reflections and key takeaways from the 2026 Waterkeeper Alliance Global Conference
By: Sean Dixon, Executive Director of Puget Soundkeeper
With over 300 Waterkeepers around the world representing vastly different geographic regions and unique waterbodies, it’s rare to get multiple ‘keepers in the same room, let alone ‘keepers from different countries (and continents!). That’s why I was particularly excited and grateful to represent Puget Soundkeeper on an international stage at the 2026 Waterkeeper Alliance Global Conference in Quito, Ecuador this fall.
This year’s conference theme, “Water Quality and Pollution Control,” encouraged us to reflect on both the unique and shared challenges our watersheds face, recognize the distinct role that Waterkeepers can play in community protection, share stories of progress and successful approaches, and reminded us to celebrate our victories, together.
Throughout my time in Quito, a few key messages and themes stood out:
Collective action for conservation should go beyond physical trash removal.
The most impactful part of the conference was the opportunity to go beyond the presentation rooms and actually join the local community in a minga. The word minga is derived from the Quechua language and represents an intergenerational community gathering for a shared goal. For this minga, the goal was the protection of Ecuador’s San Pedro River.
I was excited to participate in this local cleanup, as Puget Soundkeeper’s local shoreline cleanups are an integral part of our mission and foundational to our work on the Sound. I came into the experience thinking it would be a familiar activity. However, throughout the day, I was struck by how the minga fully incorporated all aspects of community life.
Rather than prescribing a singular action as the key to protecting the river, a minga recognizes the strength of collective action and community health in conservation work.
Different from how I traditionally thought of shoreline cleanups, this minga expanded conservation efforts beyond debris removal and habitat restoration. Instead, it directly tied the health of the waterway to the health of the community it supports. While some community members participated in the cleanup through trash removal and habitat restoration work, others contributed by collecting trash for artwork, playing music, preparing shared meals, birdwatching, watching the young children, or by simply playing and feeling joy from their local waterway. Rather than prescribing a singular action as the key to protecting the river, a minga recognizes the strength of collective action and community health in conservation work.
Health of waterways is directly tied to the health of the surrounding land.
When working in the clean water field, it is understood that land and water preservation are intertwined. However, each watershed has its own unique interactions. I learned from our local host, the Guayllabamba Waterkeeper, Patricio Chambers, that in Ecuador, rainwater and snowmelt from the surrounding mountains and volcanoes is naturally absorbed and filtered by surrounding soils before reaching the local rivers and streams that supply drinking water.
For the Guayllabamba Waterkeeper, soil health is prioritized when discussing water protection. Comparing this to my own experiences in watersheds across the U.S, I felt watersheds could greatly benefit from integrating land and soil health with work on clean water and healthy watersheds.
While Puget Soundkeeper continues to advocate for things like green stormwater infrastructure and riparian buffer zones, which play a similar filtration role to Ecuador’s volcanic soil, this reminder resonated deeply in a time where the U.S. federal government is currently threatening what it means to be a protected water in the U.S. and actively threatening wetlands across the country.
The climate crisis exposes inequalities throughout our world and our communities. Our commitment to clean water must always center our commitment to protecting frontline communities.
During the Waterkeeper Alliance conference, we were able to hear updates from the Karnali Riverkeeper in Nepal, a country recently rocked by terrible floods and landslides caused by extreme glacial melt in a warming climate. We heard sobering messages from Waterkeepers like the Karnali Riverkeeper and the Bangladesh Waterkeepers about how the climate crisis connects us all, yet those who contribute the least to the climate crisis are feeling its consequences the most.
While reflecting on the recent disasters in Nepal, I couldn’t help but think about my home watershed, where the climate crisis disproportionally affects frontline communities. Here, many communities face environmental health disparities from proximity to industry, lack of green space and shade from tree canopies, air pollution from industry and wildfires, contaminated soil, and toxins in our waterways and fish. This is all exacerbated by the climate crisis, further worsening human and environmental health. The parallels of inequality are sobering, and they reaffirm my commitment to leading Puget Soundkeeper’s work in centering community needs first.
As I look to the future, I feel empowered to be part of a global team that not only protects clean water but recognizes the importance of community centered work. I am grateful to the Guayllabamba Waterkeeper and all Waterkeeper members for sharing their knowledge, stories, and joy, and I look forward to what we can all accomplish together.