The Micronesian Climate Change Alliance is gearing up for its annual "Walk for Water" at Litekyan, focusing attention on the island’s most essential resource: our wate. KUAM News sat down with the event organizers to talk about what they hope the community will take away from the event.

This year’s one-mile walk through Litekyan, or the Ritidian National Wildlife Reserve, is bringing the community back to the fundamentals: the land, the water, and the cultural knowledge that sustain life on Guam. Led by cultural practitioners and community leaders, the free, family-friendly gathering is meant to raise awareness about what organizers call a human right: access to clean drinking water.

Maria Hernandez, co-executive director of the MCCA, says guam is already facing a water crisis – pointing to dieldrin and pfas exposure, military construction runoff, and decades of compromised access to safe freshwater. She said, “There are studies that have stated that it is contamination from military bases that are causing a lot of these health issues. The villages with this highest incidences of cancer are Yigo and Santa Rita.”

And with Camp Blaz’s live firing range expected to release 7 million lead bullets a year above the northern lens aquifer and block three miles of offshore fishing grounds, organizers say being at litekyan is intentional – showing the community what is at risk of being lost.

Independent Guahan’s Dr. Michael Lujan Bevacqua says protecting water requires remembering who we are and how long we’ve been here. “It’s really about reminding ourselves that we have been here for thousands of years. The United States has been around for a few hundred years. And so, sometimes we think that our existence is something that comes here on a plane, from the United States, or in the form of a federal handout, but our existence here really depends on water.”

Edward “Pulan” Leon Guerrero adds that understanding island history is key to resisting further exploitation of land and resources. “Without water how could we have life?” he asked.

And all three agree that while community action matters, leaders must also use their authority – saying too many are hesitant to take firm positions that could risk political popularity or federal relationships. “Now is not the time to be on the fence about any project that has the potential to harm our water," Hernandez said. "They need to take a stand and say no to future threats to water, and historical contamination needs to be cleaned up.”

Dr. Bevacqua says all of this also ties into federal overreach, including the push to open Marianas waters to deep-sea mining -- warning that the damage would be felt by island communities, not by the companies that profit.

This year’s Walk for Water includes a ceremony honoring land, water, ancestors, and the ancestral landowners of Litekyan. It will also feature musical performances, keynote speakers, demonstrations on traditional medicine, and more. The Walk for Water takes place this Saturday, December 13 at 9am and volunteers are still welcome through Pulan’s Instagram at @pulanspeaks.

“You know, big changes don’t happen overnight," said Pulan. "It’s the little things, it’s events like these that over time primes and continues the conversation [in order] for that change to happen.”