Hello Waterkeepers!

My name is Margarita Díaz from Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental and we are your Tijuana Waterkeepers. The Tijuana River meets the Pacific Ocean at a very dynamic, relatively young, strategic urban region brimming with contrasts and continuing growth. In Tijuana, the beach is the second most important free, natural, open space for recreation.

But our region's bodies of water face enormous challenges due to upcoming population increase by 1 million in the Valle Las Palmas region of the watershed, and also because of a long standing lack of environmental awareness.

But that's not holding us back. We want clean water for everyone. For almost 20 years we have advocated for grassroots action, fostered public participation and fought for a culture of access and transparency of environmental information.

Through the "Salvemos la Playa" project we have launched 19 beach cleanup campaigns, removed 85 tons of solid waste and gathered a 5,000 strong volunteer force.

We are fostering water quality advocacy among the youth through our two modules of environmental education curricula. Last year we trained more than 300 children and teens and our goal is to train 300 more.

A few days ago we were awarded the 2010 Environmental Merit Prize by the Mexican Government agency Semarnat and today we introduce ourselves to the Waterkeeper community. We are so excited to know we are not alone in this journey towards clean water.