WCC NEWS: Ecumenical Water Network breaks new ground

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World Council of Churches - News

ECUMENICAL WATER NETWORK BREAKS NEW GROUND

For immediate release: 03 November 2011

From Durban in South Africa to Busan in South Korea, water must be high
on the agenda of international summits, conferences and church assemblies,
according to participants in the Ecumenical Water Network Forum.

More than 20 activists gathered in Nairobi, Kenya from 25-27 October for
the forum, which meets once every three and a half years. They
collaborated in shaping a three-year action plan that sets directions for
this church-related global network on water.

Clean, safe and sustainable water remains a rare commodity for billions of
people in our world, noted the forum’s participants. They pressed for
movement beyond mere recognition of a human right to water, calling for
the actual implementation of this right as well as the establishment of
adequate means of sanitation for all.

The network formally came into being at the 9th Assembly of the World
Council of Churches (WCC) at Porto Alegre, Brazil in 2006 and was given a
mandate to report back to the 10th Assembly of the WCC at Busan, Korea
from 30 October to 8 November in 2013.

Among the remaining landmarks on the way to Busan are the Conference of
Parties (COP17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change meeting at Durban in late November and early December 2011 and the
“Rio + 20” United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development at Rio
de Janeiro in June 2012, marking the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit
(Rio, 1992).

The Ecumenical Water Network joins other international groups at such
events in advocating for fair and eco-friendly practices and policies,
especially in the context of the controversial “green economy”
approach.

The network also provides annual devotional resources for the Christian
season of Lent, “7 Weeks for Water”, used in many churches during the
period from Ash Wednesday to Holy Week. The materials for 2012 have as
their theme the “blue economy” envisioned in support of clean and
plentiful water for everyone.

A sustainable and just availability of water

Maike Gorsboth, coordinator of the network, expressed concern that so much
of the international discussion of a “green economy” focuses on
matters of water efficiency and market-based incentives for promoting this
efficiency,” she said. “Economic mechanisms should not restrict
control over, and access to, water on the part of small-scale farmers or
marginalized communities. Principles underlying the availability of water
must be both sustainable and just.”

Rev. André Karamaga, general secretary of the All Africa Conference of
Churches, told the forum in an opening address that access to water “is
a fundamental right that human beings should willingly and graciously
allow one another to enjoy.”

Dinesh Suna, co-chair of the network’s international reference group,
noted that the forum in Nairobi “has put us in a firm place” to make
mid-course adjustments in the journey from the 9th to the 10th assemblies
of the WCC.

According to Suna, the network’s members feel energized because the
United Nations has now recognized access to clean water and sanitation as
a human right, which has been a central goal in the network’s advocacy
work.

“From recognition” of the human right to water, said Suna, “we now
move to implementation of the rights to water and sanitation. As a
network, we also shall try to branch out to other links, like water and
food, water and energy, water policy and climate change.”

New resources for congregations, means of interpreting water ethics,
economic implications of eco-justice and the right to water, were
envisioned by participants. A publication called “Water briefs for the
pew” is being developed under the leadership of US law professor Susan
Lea Smith of Willamette University and Dr Rommel F. Linatoc of the
National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

The network will also send delegates, facilitators and resource materials
to several upcoming global, environmental and church-sponsored conferences
dealing with climate change and other key ecological issues.

Website of the Ecumenical Water Network:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=5f3c0198b6649854fc1f (Link: 
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=2472ec637e89425de9bc )

Read also:

Sustainable water projects need ownership (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=3bfceedb5495edf8eabc
)

Water: a political issue needing political solution (Link:
http://www.oikoumene.org/index.php?RDCT=803e3ef1671418105e3c
)


The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness 
and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of 
churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 349 Protestant, 
Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 560 million 
Christians in over 110 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman 
Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, 
from the [Lutheran] Church of Norway. Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.



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