• Manitoba’s Water Strategy
• Water Trends
• Safe Water, Healthy Communities
• Habitat and Heritage Rivers
• Water and Economic Diversification
• Agriculture Production and Proceessing
• Climate Change and Water
• Maintaining Water Quality
• Balancing Interests
• Knowledge and Attitude
• Human Activities
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• Water, People and Wildlife
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• Winnipeg Drinking Water
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Earth, air,
land and
water

In nature nothing exists alone. Living things relate to each other as well as to their non-living, but supporting, environments. These complex relationships are called ecosystems. Each body of water is a delicately balanced ecosystem in continuous interaction with the surrounding air and land.

Ecosystems are comprised of four basic components: water, land (rock and soils), air and living things (plants and animals including humans). Everything in an ecosystem is related to everything else. Consequently, anything that occurs in one of these basic components will have an effect on the other three. Thinking in terms of ecosystems is key to achieving sustainability because an ecosystem approach places equal emphasis on concerns related to the environment, the economy and the community.

The organizations that have supported this publication are concerned with our environment and committed to making it better.

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