CEBEDEAU • The Earth is speaking. Water, on the other hand, records everything.

The Earth has begun to speak to us. The question is: are we listening?

Today is World Environment Day, and as a center for water research and expertise, it goes without saying that the environment is at the heart of our work and our very purpose. But before we go any further, let’s pause for a moment: what are we really talking about?

Because right now, the word “environment” is everywhere: politicized, exploited, sometimes stripped of its meaning. Misinformation reigns, accompanied by its share of fears and misunderstandings. Yet the definition is right there, in the Larousse dictionary, plain and unyielding: “The totality of elements (biotic or abiotic) that surround an individual or a species, some of which directly contribute to meeting its needs.”

What defines the environment is not so much the list of its components as the one who experiences them. The one who walks the earth, breathes the air, and feeds. That is where its simplicity lies. But this set of elements is immense, interconnected, in perpetual motion. That is where its complexity lies.

Water, our playground for over 70 years, is perhaps the most striking illustration of this. It can be a component of the environment or an environment in its own right, depending on who is looking at it: an engineer, a fisherman, or the wildlife of a waterway. It regulates the climate, transports nutrients, and dilutes or concentrates pollutants. And what it contains says everything about the state of the world: microplastics in groundwater, PFAS in tap water, endocrine disruptors where we least expected them. Water doesn’t lie. It keeps a record of everything.

It is also worth remembering that a change in a living being’s environment can lead to its extinction. This is not a metaphor; it is the biological reality of things. And that is precisely why our mission will always remain this: to build a welcoming and beneficial world for everyone, through a thoughtful understanding and management of our water resources.

On this very special day for us, perhaps we could take a minute to feel the air brushing against our skin, listen to the rustling of the leaves—the whispering of a nearby forest for the more poetic among us—or the rumble of engines, smell the scent of elderflowers in bloom or gasoline, depending on where we are. These elements are an essential and integral part of our environment, and they speak to us—if we are willing to listen.

The Earth is sending signals. In the water we analyze every day, we can clearly see them: rivers that are warming, aquifers that are drying up, and emerging pollutants turning up where we least expected them. The question posed by World Environment Day 2026—“What signal will we send back?”—is also our own. And our answer, at CEBEDEAU, is being built every day, one project at a time.