Political, legal & trade

http://www.cleanwateraction.org/
U.S.-wide citizens' organization working for clean, safe and affordable water, prevention of health-threatening pollution, creation of environmentally-safe jobs and businesses, and empowerment of people to make democracy work. Organizes grassroots groups, coalitions and campaigns to protect environment, health, economic well-being and community quality of life.

http://www.canadians.org
"Water is a public trust. No one should have the right to appropriate it or profit from it at someone else's expense." Large citizens watchdog group works to keep pressing Canadian issues in the spotlight, campaigning for public policies to keep water a human right, protect rivers, ban bottled water in municipalities and institutions such as schools, and to prevent mining operations from using lakes as toxic dumpsites.  In 2009, Council chair Maude Barlow was named Senior Advisor on Water Issues to the President of the UN General Assembly.  COC works with other groups to drive the Blue Planet Project (no association with this web site or Blue Planet Links) an international campaign against privatization of water.

http://www.environmentaldefense.org/home.cfm
Founded as the Environmental Defense Fund in 1967, at which time it worked successfully - through the court system - to bring about the banning of DDT. Less court-focussed today, but still a powerful advocate for solutions to "environmental issues that affect our oceans, our air, our natural resources, the livability of our man-made environment, and the species with whom we share our world.” See OCEANS ALIVE.

www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/oceans  Greenpeace actively campaigns against threats to the ocean (industrialized fishing, global warming, pollution, unfair fisheries and over-fishing), and for national governments to recognize these threats and legislate to mitigate them.

http://www.generoyambiente.org/EN/secci...
UICN members from some 140 countries include over 70 States, 100 government agencies, and 750-plus NGOs. Thousands of internationally recognized scientists and experts from more than 180 countries volunteer their services to its six global commissions. Its 1000 staff members in offices around the world are working on about 500 projects. For more than 50 years, this ‘Green Web’ of partnerships has generated environmental conventions, global standards, scientific knowledge and innovative leadership. 

http://www.livingoceans.org
Canada's largest organization devoted to marine conservation, tackling such issues as oil tankers on the coast, marine biodiversity, sustainable fisheries, ocean planning through ecosystem-based management, ocean acidification. The Living Reef was a project to conduct a census of British Columbia's reef sealife by enlisting the help of divers and snorklers. And LOS produced Fish for Thought, an Eco-cookbook, including fish-friendly (no endangered species here) recipes from stars such as Sara McLachlan and restaurateur Umberto Menghi.  Easy facts and figures.

http://www.polarisinstitute.org
Polaris sees itself as a guiding star for citizens' movements for democratic social change, providing strategies and tactics to use against "the corporate power that is the driving force behind governments" concerning public policy. A major thrust is Operation Water Rights, which fights against a threatening for-profit water privatization agenda. Under OWR PUBLICATIONS, "Global Water Grab: How Corporations are Planning to Take Control of Local Water Services", describes models for different levels of privatization of public water systems and supplies, provides some history, claims that World Bank and IMF funds are often withheld pending privatization of public water systems. 

http://www.pollutionwatch.org
Find out who Canada's worst polluters are, and what they are releasing into the waters in your region. Non-profit organization sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, Environmental Defence Canada, and the Canadian Environmental Law Association.

http://www.sas.org.uk/
A campaign for clean, safe recreational waters, free from sewage effluents, toxic chemicals and nuclear waste. Using a solution-based argument of viable and sustainable alternatives, SAS highlights the inherent flaws in current practices, attitudes and legislation, challenging industry, legislators and politicians to end their 'pump and dump' policies.