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WATER STORY
Giving Water a Voice
For Dr. Romila Verma, the story of water is her story
BY DR. ROMILA VERMA
ONG BEFORE I UNDERSTOOD water as a scientist, taught it as an educator, or advocated for it as
a nonprofit founder, water was quietly shaping the
course of my life.
As a child growing up in India, I contracted
malaria at the age of ten, typhoid at fourteen, and jaundice
at twenty. At first, they appeared to be separate illnesses,
but they shared a common thread; contaminated and
stagnant water. I was fortunate to have access to medical
care and recovered each time.
Many others, especially children
and the elderly, were not so
fortunate. Waterborne diseases
claimed countless lives, and
growing up surrounded by
such inequity left a lasting
impression on me.
Without realizing it, water
had already become my teacher.
It taught me that access to
clean water is more than an
environmental issue; it is a
matter of justice, dignity, and
life itself.
When I entered university,
environmental science was not
yet a stand-alone discipline.
Instead, it was woven into
geography, geology, botany,
zoology, and political science. I chose to study Physical
Geography, a decision that forever changed the way I saw
the world.
I was also fortunate to learn from remarkable mentors
and ideas. Environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna and
the Chipko (tree hugging) Movement, demonstrated that
protecting nature begins by changing our relationship
with it. The writings of Carl Sagan, Vandana Shiva, Rachel
Carson, Medha Patkar, Maude Barlow, to name a few, and
the guidance of my teachers and mentors, Dr. R. B. Singh,
A. P. Grima, Virginia Maclaren, and Hilary Van Welter,
encouraged me to see science not as a collection of facts but
as a way of understanding our place within a much larger
story.
L
Dr. Romila Verma is an environmental educator, researcher at the University
of Toronto, documentary filmmaker, and founder of Water Speaks.
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WATER C AN ADA • JULY/AUGUS T 2026
One experience remains etched in my memory. As a
university student, I trekked through the Himalayas to
Gaumukh, the source glacier of the Ganges River. Standing
before the vast blue-white ice, surrounded by silence broken
only by the sound of melting water, I understood for the first
time that rivers are born long before they reach our villages,
towns or cities. In that moment, I stopped seeing water as a
resource and began seeing it as a living force that connects
mountains, forests, communities, and ultimately ourselves.
That experience shaped every decision that followed. It
eventually led me to Canada, where my commitment to
environmental stewardship found new opportunities to grow.
At the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, I
helped develop an online environmental scorecard that enabled
communities to better understand local pollutant releases. Later,
my work with Windfall Ecology Centre and Ladies of the Lake,
focusing on the declining health of Lake Simcoe, reinforced an
important lesson: our lakes and rivers are constantly speaking
to us. Through pollution, flooding, disappearing wetlands, and
biodiversity loss, water is telling its story.
The challenge is not that water is silent—it is that we
have forgotten how to listen.
Teaching geography and environmental science at the
University of Toronto introduced me to another source of
inspiration: my students. Their curiosity, optimism, and
determination convinced me that education must extend
beyond the classroom and inspire action.
That conviction led me to establish Water Speaks in
2020, a youth-led, volunteer-driven nonprofit organization
dedicated to translating the voice of water through research,
education, storytelling, and action. From student writing
and tree-planting initiatives to ecological restoration
projects, our goal is to inspire people to reconnect with the
natural world.
Storytelling has become one of my greatest passions
because facts alone rarely change hearts. Science tells us
what is happening; stories help us understand why it
matters. Documentary filmmaking allows me to bring
together research, education, and human experience in ways
that invite people not simply to learn about environmental
change but to care about it.
I have come to believe that the environmental challenges of
our century cannot be solved by technology, policy, or science
alone. They also require a transformation in mindset. Before
we change the world around us, we must change the way we
see it.
If we can change the way we think about water, we can
change the way we care for nature. And if we can change
our relationship with nature, we may yet change our future.
Perhaps that is why water found me—not simply to
study it, but to help others hear its voice.
WATERCANADA.NE T
