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 shaped a three-year action plan that sets directions for Ecumenical Water Network.
The forum’s participants 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.
Among the remaining landmarks on the way to the 10th Assembly of the World Council of Churches at Busan, Korea from 30 October to 8 November in 2013 is especially 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 will other international groups advocating for fair and eco-friendly practices and policies, especially in the context of the controversial “green economy” approach.
The network will also continue to provide 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.
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.