From Catholic News Service

Church leaders make appeal for water rights

They urged the international community to foster cooperation among churches and institutions on all levels, to exercise responsible water management and to prevent exploitation of water for commercial purposes.

Anette von Schoenfeld from the German branch of Bread for the World, a Christian nongovernmental organization, said she was pleased with the outcome of the information campaign, even though the main stance of the human rights organizations -- that free access to water should be considered a human right -- was not supported by the forum's final document.

Many participants cited a lack of political will and concern for the poor as the biggest hindrances in the search to find a solution to the water crisis.

"The indigenous teach us what we have forgotten: that water is an inherent part of us, of our life. It is 'Pachamama,' Mother Earth, a gift of God that we have to respect," said Mexican Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo.

Bishop Vera said that in the Bible water is referred to as a fundamental right.

"We cannot go on supporting this global movement of mercantilism," he said, adding that indigenous people show the world how to treat water.

While indigenous peoples play an important role in the safeguarding and protection of nature and its resources in many countries, they suffer most from the scarcity of water, said many participants.

Gabriela Soreano of a center for economic and political studies in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico, said although indigenous peoples have owned water-rich land today they sometimes feel trapped.

"On the one hand they are pressured by transnational corporations like Coca-Cola to give up their water rights. On the other hand they have to buy bottled water, which in many cases is more expensive than soft drinks," she said.

Coca-Cola was one of the sponsors of the international water forum.

Human rights groups in Mexico have many examples of how the poor, who are mainly indigenous, are becoming ever poorer due to national and water industry politics.

"All of Latin America is an example of how nations hand over their countries to the international water companies with the well-known displacement of thousands of people," said Philippe Texier of the Latin American Water Tribunal. Texier is also a member of the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

However, some communities fight the transnational corporations. In Bolivia, a coalition of farm workers and citizens stopped the privatization of water, Oscar Oliviera of the group Water Is Life told the audience at an ecumenical gathering that was part of the forum's events.

At the forum March 19, Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera said, "We have heard many claims and criticisms, many promises, compromises and good intentions, but concrete results are missing."

In a position paper submitted to the forum, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said that "water is a universal common good, a common good of the entire human family. Its benefits are meant for all and not only for those who live in countries where water is abundant, well managed and well distributed. This natural resource must be equally at the disposal of the entire human family."

The council said the water issue is a right-to-life issue and that solutions should express a "preferential love and consideration for the poor."

In accordance with researchers and water activists, the council underlined that good governance is "the most important requirement" to solve problems of access to safe water and sanitation and urged "national governments, international agencies, the private sector and local communities" to work for better coordination and cooperation.

In a special declaration, 120 mayors and local government officials from all over the world promised to urge national governments, regional and international organizations, and the United Nations to promote decentralization and to ensure real involvement of local governments in strategic water management decision-making. They also promised to promote international cooperation among governments in an effort to increase technical, human and financial capacity.

The Rev. Laurence Konmla Bropleh, a Liberian United Methodist Church member and representative of the World Council of Churches to the United Nations, said that advocacy has to go further.

"The churches have to reach out to the managers of the transnational (corporations), to the politicians, to the members of the United Nations," he said.

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