The Oregon Water Futures Project is a collaboration between the
University of Oregon, water and environmental justice interests,
Indigenous peoples, communities of color, and low-income communities.
Through a water justice lens, we aim to impact how the future of water in
Oregon is imagined through storytelling, capacity building, relationship
building, policymaking, and community-centered advocacy at the state and
local level.
In 2020, project partners co-conceptualized and facilitated a series of
conversations with Native, Indigenous Latin American, Latinx, Black,
Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Somali
communities, including webinars on Oregon water systems, phone
interviews, and virtual online gatherings. These conversations lifted up culturally specific ways of interacting with drinking water and bodies of
water; concerns around water quality and cost; resiliency in the face of
challenges to access water resources essential for physical, emotional,
and spiritual health; and a desire for water resource education and to be
better equipped to advocate for water resources.
