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The Presbyterian Global Eco-Justice
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 Why
Churches Care about Water
God’s
creation is wonderfully complex, interdependent, and beautiful.
The gifts of creation and the responsibility of its stewardship
were given to all of humanity so that each would have access
to its bounties. As God’s people, we are called to this
task—respectfully taking care of God’s creation for
its own sake, so that present and future generations may live
on it and enjoy all of its fruits. [View
or download the two-page theological foundations from the NCC]
World
facing 'arsenic timebomb'
- From BBC Science News
About 140 million people, mainly in developing countries, are
being poisoned by arsenic in their drinking water, researchers
believe, and will lead to higher rates of cancer in the future.
South
and East Asia account for more than half of the known cases
globally.
Darfur
crisis sparked off over water From
World Council of Churches
By
Fredrick Nzwili - June 7, 2007
From Darfur in western Sudan to Mt Elgon in Kenya, the absence
of water for rural communities is emerging as a major cause
of conflict on the African continent. In Darfur, the story is
one of pain and desperation for the nearly two million displaced
persons. And the organizations that work in the area are convinced
that it is battles for water and pasture that sparked it off.
Protest
against a fashionable bottle: Water rights Campaigns at World
Social Forum - From
Lutheran World Relief
NAIROBI,
Kenya/GENEVA, 29 January 2007 (LWI) - It became fashionable
for Linus Njoroge, a street boy at the 7th World Social Forum
(WSF) in Nairobi, Kenya, to carry one bottle of water in his
hip pocket and another in his hand.
A
story in a glass of muddy water
By Juan Michel - January 26, 2007; from the World Council
of Churches
"In my country [Uganda]," Ddamulira says, "you
can't be refused water to drink. So I stopped by at this house
and asked for a glass of water. A girl gave it to me. It was
50 percent mud."
Tap
Water Might Fit Your Bill Better Than Bottled
By Gregory Karp in the Chicago Tribune - September 10, 2006
Paying hundreds of times more for something you've already paid
for is probably the silliest of all spending habits. Yet Americans
spent some $10 billion on bottled water last year. That's right.
Big companies sell plain water in a bottle. Cynics might say
that's akin to selling ice to Eskimos. Tap water is so cheap
and convenient it's dispensed from several faucets in your home
and available free at public drinking fountains.
WATER
SUCKING LAWNS: Redefining American Beauty, by the Yard
By Patricia Leigh Brown in the New York Times
A "delawning" movement is sprouting up around the
U.S., as a handful of homeowners switch from resource-intensive
grassy green expanses to drought-tolerant, native, and/or edible
gardens. "It's about shifting ideas of what's beautiful,"
says Fritz Haeg, an L.A. architect whose Edible Estates project
transforms front yards into fruit and vegetable gardens. A new
report from the Public Policy Institute of California provides
more fodder for the anti-lawn set: It asserts that thirsty home
landscaping will suck up a troubling amount of water in the
state over the next 25 years if the love affair with lawns continues.
California is expected to add 11 million new residents by 2030,
with at least 50 percent settling in hotter inland regions where
single-family homes with lawns are common, according to the
report. Some neighbors, however, don't appreciate creative gardening.
"What happens in the backyard is their business,"
said one man who lives near a yard now being used to grow 195
various edibles. "But this doesn't seem to me to be a front
yard kind of a deal."
Presbyterians
on Water
Postmark:
Bolivia Mission worker supports network that aims to protect
water resources by Susan Ellison,
PC(USA) Mission Co-Worker
 Horizons
Magazine: WATER
From Presbyterian Women
Living
Waters for the World and Clean
Water U is a training and action program of the Synod of
Living Waters
I
THIRST 
A Gospel
of John Lenten Study Guide for the 2006 One Great Hour of Sharing
from the Presbytery of Philadelphia [print back
to back, landscape, and fold]
Sudan
Situation Report from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance:
"The Wait for Water"
Poisoning
Our Water
The 202nd
General Assembly highlights and calls for action to protect
waterways and groundwater from contamination.
Limited
Water Resources and Takings with Study Guide
From the 216th (2004) General Assembly
Excerpts
f rom Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice General Assembly
1990 - Order
this study guide
- Humans
are making excessive demands upon, and doing reckless damage
to, the lakes and streams, the ground water, and even the
oceans...
- Meanwhile,
most Third World nations cannot afford the systems that would
provide safe drinking water...
- [H]uman
beings [must] practice wise, humble, responsible stewardship,
after the model of servanthood that we have in Jesus.
Learn
about Water
 |
New
Internationalist Web Water Facts
Where
is it going?
Our increasing thirst is a result of growing population,
industrial development and the expansion of irrigated
farming. In the past 40 years, the area of irrigated land
has doubled. [Learn
more]
|
Privatizing
Water: Profits Over People
By Rev.Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa, United Church of Christ
This two-page piece is from the excellent UCC publication called,
Privatization:
A Challenge to the Common Good, which covers privatization
of social security, health, education, prisons, the military
and the threats to democracy.
Water
for All Youth Curriculum (for 9-13 year olds)
OXFAM Great Britian has developed an interactive, online curriculum
that uses case studies, math and story-telling through pictures
to learn about water.
UNESCO
also has a wealth of information on water from their World
Water Assessment Programme for development, capacity building
and the environment.
Waves
of Change, Rivers of Doubt: Global Water Issues and Solutions
Water...
it's the source of all life. 70 percent of the planet is covered
in it, and more than half of your body is made up of it. We
use water everyday to refresh, revive, to subsist... yet, water
resources are growing increasingly scarce around the world and
access to potable water is alarmingly difficult in some regions.
Listen
to this water special from the National Radio Project.
Water
News and Analysis
General
Issues | Water Privatization
General
 Getting
Fresh
The world's freshwater systems are in crisis, bedeviled by everything
from global warming to good old-fashioned corruption. Though
energy gets all the attention, water may well be the sleeper
environmental issue of the 21st century. Peter Gleick, head
of the Pacific Institute, and William K. Reilly, ex-EPA chief
and CEO of Aqua International Partners, know a thing or two
about water. They sat down with David Roberts to pour a nice
cold glass of knowledge about privatization, thirsty agriculture,
and the human right to clean H2O. From GRIST!
Water
Scarcity: A Looming Crisis?
The world faces an important issue with water at every level
of development, whether it be scarcity, quality, or wasteful
consumption. BBC, UK.
Surf
Your Watershed
The EPA Web site has a "surf your watershed" site where
you can find data about your local water resources
Water
for a Sustainable and Secure Future: A Report of the
4th National Conference on Science Policy and the Environment
explores science-based strategies for achieving water sustainability.
NCSE's unique conference attracted more than 800 scientists,
policymakers, business executives and civil society representatives
from 46 states and 14 countries. The participants worked together
to craft recommendations about the role of science in achieving
sustainable relationships among water, people and the environment.
Asian
Farmers Sucking the Continent Dry
The world is on the verge of a water crisis as people fight
over ever dwindling supplies. So much water is being drawn from
underground reserves that they, and the pumps they feed, are
running dry, turning fields that have been fecund for generations
into desert. [New Scientist, England, (8/28/04)
 Clashes
Over Global Water Policy in Mexico City
Angel Martinez, a member of the Union
of National Water Workers, said, "The quality of water
service in Mexico is terrible, and you can see it in the high
indices of water-borne illnesses and even cancer in every state
in Mexico. Apart from diarrhea diseases – the main cause
of death in children in every state, we are finding high rates
of cancer from heavy metals in the water in quantities that
you Gringos would find terrifying."
[Read
this first-hand report from the World Water Forum in Mexico]
Free-flowing
rivers: economic luxury or ecological necessity?
Most of the world's largest rivers
are losing their connection to the sea, and only a third of
the world's 177 large rivers remain free flowing, unimpeded
by dams or other barriers. A concerted effort for their conservation
is urgently needed. This report shows that the ever-increasing
loss of free-flowing rivers is a disturbing trend, threatening
the supply of water for drinking, sanitation, agriculture, fish
and fishery products. In many places fisheries are the most
important source of protein for people living in poverty. Other
services provided by rivers are less obvious, but at least as
important. Regulating services of freshwater systems include,
amongst many others, water purification, flood mitigation and
sediment deposition. Freshwater systems also offer numerous
cultural services, varying from recreational opportunities to
aesthetic and spiritual values.[Read
the report from WWF]
Water
Privatization
Privatizing
Water: Profits Over People
By Rev. Wallace Ryan Kuroiwa, United Church of Christ
The story of Joseph and the famine, from Genesis 41 is used
to show how "control of a basic necessity for life can
provide unmitigated power over the lives of others and leads
to the oppression of others. We see today how the contemporary
“pharaohs” of the world have used the rules of the
global economy to appropriate large shares of the world’s
water so that people have to come to them to buy this necessity
of life."
ARGENTINA:
Another War Over Water
Buenos Aires, 7 June 2006
Fed up with poor water quality, rate hikes and a lack of investment
in expanding infrastructure, residents, union members and environmentalists
in the Argentine province of Córdoba have forced a multinational
corporation to withdraw from the business.
 Water
business takes off!
Only 2 percent of the world's water is fresh, and with the World
Commission on Water for the 21st Century projecting a 50 percent
increase in demand in the next 30 years, food and drinking-water
shortages, droughts, devastated agriculture, disease, and even
armed conflict over water may be on the horizon. We smell profits!
And indeed, over the last five years, stocks in the water sector
have leapt 113 percent (while the S&P 500 lost 17 percent),
with a 24 percent jump just last year. Companies involved in
the $400 billion-a-year global water biz -- delivery and storage
of water, construction and maintenance of infrastructure like
wastewater-treatment facilities and desalination plants -- have
seen their portfolios boom in recent years. Huge corporations
like General Electric are investing billions each year in their
water holdings.
"Water
will emerge as the next growth commodity," says hedge-fund
manager John Romero. [Read
the PDF report]
 IMF,
World Bank and WTO role in liberalization and privatization
of the water services sector
In recent years there has been growing pressure from the World
Bank and other major International Financial Institutions on
governments to downsize, decentralize, and privatize (or "contract
out") their functions. For example, low-income countries
are expected to integrate reforms related to privatization and
trade reforms into their medium-term development strategies,
or Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). This paper examines
the implications of these policies for the privatization of
the water sector, looking at potential impacts on poor sectors
of society in various developing countries.
The
Trickle Away Effect
Multinational water companies once beat a path
to buy up privatised operators in Argentina. Now they are desperate
to get out. From the Guardian Unlimited.
Water
Privatization: Providing Water Cannot Be Left to Market Forces
by Leon Spencer, Washington Office on Africa
ACTION:
Water as Gift from God and Right for
All
Support
Water for the World U.S. federal legislation
through the PC(USA)'s Washington Office's Legislative Action
Center
 H2O:
How 2 Overcome the Bottled Water
Habit
Avoiding bottled water is one way we can take better care
of water resources, locally and globally. Download the H2O:
How to Overcome the Bottled Water Habit campaign brochure
(pdf). It includes the history/ scripture/ church policy that
inspired the campaign, a bottled water pledge, a True/False
quiz on bottled water, and more. And click
here to read and sign the BOTTLED WATER PLEDGE.
Remember
the Poor
Use Church World Service's action alert to advocate for access
to, and provision of, water as critical to achieving the Millennium
Development Goals. Build grassroots support for Congressional
legislation that supports universal access to water worldwide.
 Living
Waters for the World Needs You
You
can change lives throughout the world by giving of your time
and talent to support the mission of Living Waters for the World.
Get involved in a "Clean Water Mission Team." This
great program, initiated by Hunger Action Enabler, Wil Howie,
trains and equips mission teams to bring the gift of clean water
to communities in need. No prior experience is necessary - just
a desire to serve!
Try
the Tap Water Challenge:
Pitting bottled water against good old tap water!
The
Tap Water Challenge was developed as a way to educate and engage
our fellow community members about this critical corporate accountability,
human rights and environmental issue.
People take a blind-folded test that pits pricey bottled water
against good old tap water--and most find that they can't tell
the difference! The Tap Water Challenge has taken place in cities
across the country this past spring, involving thousands of
people and reaching millions more through over 75 news stories!
Everything
you need is found in Corporate
Accountability International's Tap Water Challenge Organizing
Kit
Sign
on to the Joint
Declaration of the Movements in Defense of Water
Mexico City, March 19, 2006
From March 14 to 19th, we, human beings with a holistic vision
of life, activists from social movements, non-governmental organizations,
and networks that struggle throughout the world in the defense
of water and territory and for the commons, have shared ideas,
struggles, worries and proposals. At the same time we have realized
how our struggles have brought change around the world, slowing
the process of water privatization. Now that we are not on the
defensive, we are capable of promoting concrete proposals advancing
in the life of every corner of our world. Sign the declaration
by contacting comdainfo@hotmail.com
Inside
the Bottle
Inside the Bottle is a Polaris Institute project designed
to stimulate citizen awareness about the bottled water industry.
This site has begun to map the bottle water locations of the
industry's Big 4 corporate players. Citizens are invited to
contribute to this map by investigating and reporting how the
industry operates within your community. This site also hosts
relevant news, publications, and resources for those interested
in furthering public discussion and debate about bottled water
issues.
 Show
the award-winning film - Thirst
- in your congregation
To borrow the film contact
the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
To order contact Bullfrog
Films P.O. Box 149, Oley, PA 19547. 800-543-3764.
Thirst
is a piercing look at the conflict between public stewardship
and private profit. A character-driven documentary revealing
the power struggle between global corporations and the communities
who suddenly lose control of their most precious resource. DVD
and VHS available. [View
the list of other videos on globalization available]
 Resources
and Links
Water
and the Community of Life
from Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns
Water
for life: community water security booklet
Published by the Hesperian Foundation, this booklet provides
practical guidance on how communities can achieve access to
water. It explains the relationships between water security
and health and outlines how to develop a plan for community
water security, plan improvements to the water supply, protect
groundwater sources, collect rainwater, transport and store
water safely, and make water safe for drinking and cooking.
The booklet advocates partnerships between government and communities
to provide water security and argues that water privatization
can lead to raised prices. A final section highlights international
agreements that protect the human right to safe water. 52-page
PDF is available for download
General
Agreement on Trade in Services and Water
The WTO-administered General Agreement on Trade in Services
(GATS) poses an increasingly serious threat to the sustainable
and equitable management of scarce water resources globally,
and in developing countries in particular. The GATS is the first
ever multilateral, legally enforceable set of rules to cover
a wide array of services, ranging from business related services
to water supply and sanitation services. Read
the full report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy
One Great Hour of Sharing
Water is the theme for 2006
Order free resources to use with your congregation
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