International Decade 
for Action, 
'Water for Life'
2005-2015.

March 22, 2005, marked the beginning of the

The World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002) led to the Year of Freshwater (2003) and the annual observance of World Day for Water on March 22.

 The Decade will focus on achieving previously stated water-related goals from Agenda 21 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)- especially to ensure environmental sustainability by 

reducing by half the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 

stopping unsustainable exploitation of water resources.

developing integrated water resource management and water efficiency plans by 2005 

and cutting in half by 2015, the proportion of people who do not have access to basic sanitation.

To address the fact that nearly 80 percent of the pollution in the oceans originates from land-based sources, UN Water will work to improve municipal wastewater management as well as promote hygiene and sanitation education.

A special emphasis will be placed on ensuring the involvement of women in these development efforts.

www.un.org/waterforlifedecade

Working for water sustainability around the world and around the corner

Around the world, people are taking the UN International Decade for Action, 'Water for Life'' to heart and using nonviolent means to sustain their water supply and stop privatization of their resources.

In Nicaragua, citizens are trying to stop privatization through the courts, while the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is financing a government effort to create new laws that would promote privatization.

In Plachimada, India, courageous residents protested Coke's abusive practices for 750 days culminating in a 150 mile walk from one Coke plant to another. One Coke plant is temporarily closed and the courts have ruled that ground water is common property and imposed limits on corporate use of water.

In Manila, where the water rate has increased by 700 percent since privatization in 1997 while quality has deteriorated resulting in outbreaks of cholera, communities are demanding that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) review its water and lending policies that trap governments into accepting privatization. www.icij.org/water

In Ghana, citizens' groups are moving through their courts to stop a take-over of their water systems by private companies backed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

In La Rinconado, Peru, the Diocese of Chulucanas, , where Clinton Franciscan Sister Phyllis Morris has ministered for 40 years, took on the project of constructing a well after determining that eighty percent of illness found in the village was caused by unsafe water. The people of La Rinconado come daily to draw water from the well 

Holding tanks store water from the new well built by the Diocese of Chulucanas, Peru. The pump is run 1/2 hour each day to fill the tanks with clean, filtered water

“Be praised for 
Sister Water: 
humble, helpful, 
precious, pure”

Canticle of Creation, 
Francis of Assisi

The air we breathe, the water we drink - in these common elements we are one: one with each other, one with all life, connected with all creation. From the sacred rivers of India to the rite of Christian baptism, water is recognized as the source of life and salvation: a special “sign” of the Creator's bounty.

It is good enough to talk of God whilst we are sitting here after a nice breakfast and looking forward to another luncheon, but how am I to talk of God to the millions who have to go without two meals a day? To them, God can only appear as bread and butter.

Mahatma Gandhi

. . and water.

But water has become a commodity, a “thing” to be bought and sold. The very source of life on Earth is fast becoming available to only the highest bidder. It is being used as a tool, a weapon for achieving political / economic power. It separates the rich from the poor, the healthy from the sick, workers from beggars.

And We send down pure water from the sky - that with it, We may give life to a dead land, and slake the thirst of things We have created -cattle and men in great numbers. And We have distributed the water amongst them….

The Holy Qur'an, 25:48-49

Today, over one billion people around the world don't have access to enough water. For instance, if you had a family of 6 and your home were a microcosm of the world population today, someone in your family wouldn't have access to safe drinking water. More than two billion people do not have adequate sanitation. Four thousand children die daily from an unsafe and inadequate water supply.

“I pray that they may be one as we are one”

John 17: 21-22

The UN estimates that if current trends continue, by 2025 more than two-thirds of the world's people won't have access to enough water. Already, privatization is making water service too costly for communities that were able to afford municipal service.

As members of a global community, we witness our Franciscan spirituality of . . . connectedness with all creation.
We make all decisions, both personal and corporate, in light of the following: What will this choice do to and for poor and marginalized persons, the earth, . . .

Clinton Franciscan Commitment Statement, 2004-2008

Drinking somebody else's water

Bottled water has become the second largest commercial beverage sold in the U.S. In 2002, producers-primarily Nestlé, Coke and Pepsi in the U.S. - spent $93.8 million to advertise their “pure,” “safe,” “clean,” and “healthy” products. In fact, water bottling is one of the least regulated industries in the U.S. and bottled water is no safer-and often less safe-than tap water.

And where does that water in the bottle come from? 

If not straight from the tap resulting in overuse of local water supplies, it is water extracted from places such as India where Coke operates bottling plants that have been drawing nearly 100 million gallons of water per year for over 15 years causing groundwater levels to fall by 40 feet. That means wells, irrigation systems and small rivers literally dry up. The poorest of the poor are now without even water.

What can we do?

Join with advocacy groups such as Corporate Accountability International (CAI) (formerly INFACT). www.stopcorporateabuse.org

and the Polaris Institute 
www.insidethebottle.org

in protesting companies such as Coke and Pepsico, Nestlé and Danone. 

Their extraction of water in North America and abroad depletes resources from the regions' aquifers or from municipal water utilities.

They also take massive subsidies and tax exemptions and contribute to environmental damage with their reliance on plastics and packaging- an estimated 1.5 billion tons each year.

CAI is working with our allies to explore the possibility of a global treaty to protect the fundamental human right to water similar to the recently ratified Global Tobacco Treaty.