Seven Weeks for Water

10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines; it flows between the mountains. 11 They give water to all the beasts of the field; the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
16 The trees of the LORD are well watered, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted. 17 There the birds make their nests; the stork has its home in the pine trees.
(Psalm 104: 10-11; 16-17)

Water, God's gift to sustain life, not only given for humans but also for the animals and plants. When I think about water in my context I think about rivers, rain, ocean, snow, ice, lakes, streams, waterfalls and dew. I also think about the responsibility required to take care of these gifts. We are not always responsible. I think of the street cleaning machines that use clean water to wash the paved streets. I think of people watering grass around their house so it is green and looks nice.

I think of the Cheslatta T'en, Indigenous Carrier people from north-central British Columbia who have been displaced by the development of a dam on the Nechako River. This land which since time immemorial has been the sustenance and home of the people. After World War II the demand for aluminum was growing. But aluminum needs to be smelted and the energy to be provided for the new production plant was to come from a hydroelectric dam. Not just any dam, but the largest sloping, rock-filled clay-core dam in the world! By the 1950s, the Aluminum Company of Canada (Alcan) was given water rights to the Nechako River and support from the government to build the dam. This has transformed not only the flow of the river and volume of surrounding lakes, but the temperature of the waters thereby endangering the salmon and other fish (see footnote 1).

In other parts of the world too, large dam constructions force people to move away from their homes and traditional lands, giving up their livelihoods. Dams have also threatened the habitat of animals when the flow of the river changes and floods the land. One such example is the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River in India. Arundhati Roy writes about the reasons the Indian government is interested to build the dam and subsequent consequences for the local population who are forced to migrate because of the construction and the flooding river. "Suddenly they can't trust their river anymore. It's like a loved one who has developed symptoms of psychosis. Anyone who has loved a river can tell you that the loss of a river is a terrible, aching thing." (see footnote 2)

Who has the right to take water away? Who has the right to change a river? Who has the right to monopolize on or contaminate that which has been entrusted to us all?

I have asked three young people I know about their thoughts and work on water issues.

Angelious has been involved in the youth program of WCC and is currently a member of the Education & Ecumenical Formation Commission. He is an active leader in his church in India especially on ecological issues:

"We recently had a work camp on the theme "Youth and Nature" in one of the most remote places of Koraput district surrounded by hills and mountains. 11 Tribal and Dalit Youth participated and we spent a week helping the tribal people in their daily work trying to understand their struggle. One of the struggles the community faces is access to clean water. The community themselves generate electricity from the available water recourse there which is not really drinkable.

One of the important parts of our camp was evening devotion and we choose Psalm 104 for daily reflection. It is written there that wild animals shall drink water from the stream/river, which is natural. The youth put their thoughts into it and related it to water privatization. It becomes a right of the animals to drink water from the stream when they are thirsty.

How do we make youth aware of water issues? Bottled water has become a common phenomenon here and those who can afford to buy it can avail it but not all. When the tribal peoples go to the town they have to buy the cheaper water packets and studies have shown that these water packets are not safe to drink but the people have no other options because water sources are privatized. Hardly any public water points are there. Some of the key water and water related issues we are addressing as part of our WATER CAMPAIGN in India is
1. Water right as Human right
2. Clean and Safe Water for All
3. Water - A gift and not a Commodity"

From Mutua, who participated in an ecumenical formation program for young people at WCC, has a background in science and is preparing for World Water Day:

"There are many elements on earth that are important but water is a bit more special. It is paramount to the beginning of life and to life itself. Here on earth God created the waters first, this is if you look at it in a Religious context, but even in a scientific context water is the first fundamental element on earth. It is fundamental because in the presence of water life is created. This is why we look for water on other planets because it is not only a symbol for life but is also vital for life. It is essential to the creation and continuation of life. When I look at it in this sense I have more respect for water."

My friend Wade, works for the United Church of Canada and has a background in theatre. With his artistic talents and passion for social and ecological justice he has created a theatre play performed for churches and communities in Canada to raise awareness about water and to support a project he has started:

"The first rainwater-harvesting tanks are full of water and being used! Two large tanks (75,000L) are providing clean drinking water for all students at the school. One smaller tank (10,000L) is completed in each of the two villages that share the school, Adexor and Adexor-Kpodzi, Ghana. The WATER project.ca is directed by Nathaniel Amann-Blake and Wade Lifton on Canada's west coast. Nathaniel earned a masters degree in environmental policy from the University of Oxford and works in the field of environmental assessment. Our project manager, Eric Chimsi, is an expert in rainwater harvesting who was trained by a team from Kenya and now educates others about rainwater harvesting in Ghana and other parts of the continent. Christian Keteni is our project coordinator, overseeing the ongoing details of construction, maintenance and community facilitation. Christian grew up in Adexor, trained in construction and now owns a pharmacy in the nearby town of Mepe. The residents of Adexor have expressed great pride and confidence that a leader from their community is coordinating this project."

Together we can make a difference:

Read the Indigenous Declaration on Water, which was written at the Third World Water Forum, in Kyoto, Japan, March 2003.
Reflect on the following questions with others in your church or ecumenical group:

• What is your relationship to water?
• How is water used in your community? What animals and plants also rely on the water sources in your area?
• Are there dam projects in your country? If so where are they built and what have been the results (positive and negative)?
• If there are negative consequences (such as ecological damage, flooding, displacement of people, limited access for people to use water) write a letter to your local and national government with your church about your concerns.

Links:

Kairos Canada work on water:
www.kairoscanada.org/e/ecology/water/reflectionWater.asp  
www.kairoscanada.org/e/ecology/water/wonderFreshWater.asp  

"The Greater Common Good" by Arundhati Roy is about the Sardar Sarovar dam: http://www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html  

For more information about the dam on Nechako River: www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg40_e.html

The WATER project.ca a Canadian-Ghanaian initiative: www.thewaterproject.ca

Footnotes:
1 - The Cheslatta T'en and the Kemano Hydro Project. Indian and Northern Affairs Cananda. 2006/02/08. www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sg40_e.html
2 - Roy, Arundhati. The Greater Common Good. 1999/03/24. www.narmada.org/gcg/gcg.html

Natalie Maxson, World Council of Churches,
with contributions from Angelious Michael, Mutua Kobia, & Wade Lifton.

Jesus... laid aside his garments and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet...
John 13.4-5

When Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing... he took water and washed his hands before the crowd saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood, see to it yourselves."
Matt 27.24

But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.
John 19.34


Water as a symbol of passion, commitment and betrayal...

There is beautiful simplicity and dedication in Jesus pouring water into a bowl and kneeling to wash his disciples' feet. His passion and cross are not far away, yet he takes time to care for his friends in this intimate, passionate, gentle way.

Jesus washes their feet as a sign of commitment and service to them, and also to prepare them for the difficult path they will have to tread once he is no longer with them. From now on every time they wash one another's feet, every time they serve others sacrificially in the world they will remember him cleansing and cooling their aching feet and pains with water, their master kneeling before them in humility.

On Maundy Thursday during Holy Week, many churches remember Christ carrying water in a bowl to each of his disciples and cleaning their feet. In remembrance of that profound act of caring and service we also seek to follow Christ today as we care, heal and serve.

In contrast Pilate seeks absolution from guilt for Jesus' crucifixion with his very public ablutions. To wash one's hands of a problem, is to not take responsibility, this water is a sign of betrayal.

Jesus' first miracle in John's gospel is to turn water into wine. Dead on the cross, water and blood pour from his side when it is pierced by the soldier's spear. This water is a sign of the body's agony and breakdown in death and more deeply of Christ's humanity and life offered up. Later risen
from the dead he will call his disciples to conquer the deep and make a miraculous catch of fish from the waters.

As we meditate Christ's passion we reflect on our own service of others. We also seek to understand and enter into the suffering of so many in our world whose right to be human is being undermined by their daily struggle for access to clean water.
So are we going to follow Christ and take up the cloth and the bowl or follow Pilate and wash our hands?

Together we can make a difference

• Wash your hands and think
  Everytime you wash your hands this week remember to take responsibility for talking about water as a basic resource everyone has the right to.
• Get passionate about water
  Find out what's going on near you for World Water Day and get involved with others in local, national and international water campaigns.
• A spiritual exercise for Holy Saturday
  World Water Day falls this year on Holy Saturday(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Saturday), it's called still or silent Saturday in some traditions. Perhaps on that silent day as we wait for the joy of the resurrection to break through we can imagine or listen to the sound of water dripping, marking time. Imagine just how precious each drop is, how life-giving, how essential. Reflect also that Jesus promised to be a source of living waters to the woman at the well.
  Maybe you can make recordings or podcasts of a baby being bathed or of water being poured or of a fountain gurgling.
  The sound of water reminds us of God's promise of plenty; silence can remind us how little just sharing there is of this resource that is essential for life.

Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4: 13-14)

On his way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus went through Samaria, a foreign land. He stopped in Sychar, by Jacob's well, where he met a Samaritan woman. Jesus asked her for water and she responded, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?", as Jews and Samaritans did not relate to each other. Then Jesus replied, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." And the dialogue continued for a while.

This meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman shows Jesus going beyond conventional rules and talking to a Samaritan woman, which astonishes the disciples when they see him (v. 27). Jesus starts from a daily need, water and opens the Samaritan woman to a different dimension: living water. His words resonate with those of the book of Revelation: "To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life" (Rev 21: 6)

"The Bible affirms water as the cradle of life, an expression of God's grace in perpetuity for the whole of creation (Gen 2:5ff). It is a basic condition for all life on Earth (Gen 1:2ff.) and is to be preserved and shared for the benefit of all creatures and the wider creation," states the WCC's Statement on Water for life.

The relationship between water and life is highlighted in Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman. For those of us who easily get water from the tap it is difficult to understand how precious water is. But "access to freshwater supplies is becoming an urgent matter across the planet. The survival of 1.2 billion people is currently in jeopardy due to lack of adequate water and sanitation. Unequal access to water causes conflicts between and among people, communities, regions and nations."

Church World Service's campaign Water for All uses the above olive wood ornament of the Woman at the well as its symbol. It tells of the different symbolism of water and a woman going to well.

Water also reminds us of the spiritual life and the basics of our faith. The 16th century Spanish mystic John of the Cross, for example, refers to water in many of his poems. Water, springs and wells are symbols in his poems of God who can be reached only by faith. Despite doubts, difficulties, conflicts, crises, darkness or night, water can be a reminder of the presence of a loving and caring God amongst us. One of St John of the Cross's poems begins: "For I know well the spring that flows and runs, although it is night".

May that spring of living water flow for all, everywhere.

Guillermo Kerber, WCC

Together we can make a difference:

Learn about CWS campaign Water for all
Try to find out how churches in your city, country or region are addressing the water crisis. How can you be involved, how can you contribute to these initiatives?

Read and meditate John of the Cross "Song of the soul that rejoices in knowing God through faith" Would you like to try the original Spanish version?: Poem number 8. Cantar del alma que se huelga de conocer a Dios por fe. 

Further information:

Recent WCC statements on the water crisis and its relationships to Climate Change:

Statement on Water for Life (February 2006)

Statement on the 10th Anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol (September 2007)

"Be stewards of God's creation" Minute on Global Warming and Climate Change (February 2008) 

Ho, everyone who thirsts,
   come to the waters;
and you that have no money,
   come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
   without money and without price.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
   and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
   giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
   it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
   and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
Isaiah 55.1, 10-11.

Added Value?

In the kitchen is a half drunk plastic bottle of water - left over from my last train journey. A large internationally-recognized label brands the bottle and adds value (at least for the shareholders in the company) to the humble yet life-essential contents. Sometimes I admit I'm too lazy or stressed to organize myself to fill a bottle with tap water when I travel, yet I'm one of the lucky 15% of the world's population who have access to clean drinking water from the tap.

Some parts of the world have become obsessed with branded bottled water as a lifestyle accessory. In other parts of the world the added value that women and children give to water by carrying it over long distances is quite simply life for their families and communities.

The prophet Isaiah makes an almost outrageous invitation and promise, not branded luxuries for a few but a gracious and bountiful free sharing of the earth's rich resources. The word accomplishes God's purposes of justice in the same way that water causes the earth to spring forth and bear fruit.
Through Lent we meditate how God's word speaks to us, trusting that it shall not return empty. We pray that God's word in us may give real added value to the world in such a way that the promise that all who thirst may at last have equal access to life-giving water.

Are we willing to hear the word, be part of the promise and join the campaign for water justice, get organized and give up luxury branded water?

Jane Stranz, WCC.

Together we can make a difference

Take the "Think Outside the Bottle Pledge" and fill jugs with clean tap water if you live in an area where the tap water is of drinking quality.

Don't buy branded bottled water for meetings - use jugs with Ecumenical Water Network labels on them.

Further information:

Think Outside the Bottle
http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org

Bottled Water Facts by Kairos Canada
http://www.kairoscanada.org/e/ecology/water/bottled/index.asp

Water: Life before Profit (2006) United Church of Canada Social Policy Positions
http://www.united-church.ca/beliefs/policies/2006/w143

Inside the Bottle provides resources and news on the bottled water industry. The site has started 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. http://www.insidethebottle.org

The men of the city said to Elisha, "Look, our lord, this town is well situated, as you can see, but the water is bad and the land is unproductive."
"Bring me a new bowl," he said, "and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.

Then he went out to the spring and threw the salt into it, saying,
"This is what the LORD says: 'I have healed this water. Never again will it cause death or make the land unproductive.'
And the water has remained wholesome to this day, according to the word Elisha had spoken.

2 Kings 2:19-22 (NIV)

Water is the source of life. The mountain spring that quenches ones? thirst; showers of rain that rejuvenate the parched earth; swift rivers, still lochs and stormy seas that extend beyond the horizon, teeming with life. But this very source of life, when contaminated can be the harbinger of disease and death. Micro-organisms and chemicals in water people drink can cause disease and it is estimated that 5.7% of the total disease burden occurring worldwide and 4.0% of all deaths can be attributed to water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Environmental sanitation and human health are closely linked. Poor management of human waste can lead to disease transmission. Presently 2.4 billion people have no access to basic sanitation.

It is amazing that even as the human civilization has achieved dizzying heights, the basic requirements of clean water and safe sanitation are not being met for a large proportion of the human family.

In the Bible, narratives of purification and the healing of waters - to make it fit for consumption, show the preoccupation of early societies to ensure healthy and pure sources of water. (Exodus 15:22 - 27, II Kings 2:19-22)

The Bible also clearly documents the importance that communities gave to environmental and sanitation issues. The importance of cleanliness was always emphasized. Yet the teachings consistently stressed that cleanliness and purity were a matter of the heart and of one's conduct, and about much more than meticulous adherence to ceremonial rituals. Nevertheless, proper sanitary practices (Deuteronomy 23:12, 13) were also stipulated to preserve and promote the health of communities by ensuring safe disposal of excreta and the protection of water sources.

Why are the truths that were recognized by faith communities for thousands of years still not being realized by society today? Why do we accept such glaring inequity as normal? Why do we continue to wallow in our own comfort zones? Why are we blind to the precepts and obligations that we are bound to as disciples of Jesus Christ? How can we continue to allow the pollution of the source of life so it becomes a channel of death?

Dr. Manoj Kurian, World Council of Churches

Together we can make a difference

• Find out about what is causing water and river pollution where you live.
• Organize a river cleanup in your community. It's a great way to reconnect your family, friends and neighbours with the streams and rivers in your backyard. A very helpful tool is the River Cleanup Organizer's Handbook by American Rivers, which includes important organizational and safety tips.
  http://www.americanrivers.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AR7_NationalRiverCleanup_Handbook

Links to further information

• River Cleanup Planning Checklist and Safety Tips (Texas Waterway Cleanup Program) http://www.ktb.org/programs/twc/
• International Year of Sanitation 2008 http://www.sanitationyear2008.org
• The Sanitation Scandal (Tearfund) - This report, drawing on case studies from Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Madagascar, highlights barriers to delivering improved sanitation and hygiene and suggests how the international community and  national governments should respond. Available in French and English
• World Health Organization (WHO) on Water http://www.who.int/topics/water/en/
• SaniCon - An Environmental Sanitation Network which provides information on technologies, institutions and financing of sanitation systems around the world. www.sanicon.net

The Lord turns rivers into a desert,
springs of water into thirsty ground,
a fruitful land into a salty waste,
because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.

The Lord turns a desert into pools of water,
a parched land into springs of water.
And there he lets the hungry live,
and they establish a town to live in;
they sow fields, and plant vineyards,
and get a fruitful yield.
Psalm 107.33-37

Being an advocate

The Psalmist offered his hearers an object lesson in the consequences of their collective behaviour. We don't know whether this was a reference to particular incidents but it was obviously the kind of thing with which people would have been familiar. The lack or abundance of water was not down to arbitrary actions by God but was related to the way people behaved.

The Psalmist saw things at the level of the local community and we can point to places where greed or creativity have had similar consequences. However, we are now also aware of the inter-connectedness of life at the global level. There are still consequences for behaviour but some people, even though they may do all the right things, find their water running dry. They pay the price for the greedy behaviour of others, maybe on another continent, whose business practices and political policies make them and their land thirsty. We see this at many different levels from the privatisation of collectively owned water systems to the effects of climate change. We are all involved one way or another.

We can, and should, change our personal behaviour and act responsibly towards our neighbours and the planet. We can support projects for the provision of clean drinking water and irrigation schemes.

We should also be advocates for good economic and political practices that will result in provision rather than drought for the people who share our planet. The Letter of James reminds people of faith that comforting words to sufferers are not enough. We have to be 'doers of the word' (James 1.22). If we take James seriously, our Lenten spiritual discipline should flow out into action.

This Lent, we can hear a call to be advocates, speaking and acting, for political and commercial behaviour that turns 'deserts into pools of water, a parched land into springs of water' and not the reverse.

Simon Oxley, World Council of Churches

Together we can make a difference

o Take the time to read about how power, poverty and the global water crisis are linked in the overview of the UNDP Human Development Report 2006
hdr.undp.org/en/media/hdr_2006_overview.pdf

o Are the natural resources where you live in danger? Is the just distribution of water guaranteed? Inform yourself and motivate others, for example by organizing an informative event on the issue in your congregation.

o Speak out, maybe by writing a letter to local authorities or politicians or to the editors of your local newspapers. You can support others who do advocacy on related issues by taking part in their events, letter actions, marches, etc.

o Start by finding out whether any activities are already taking place where you live around World Water Day. How can you participate and contribute?


Links to further information

o Footsteps 45: Advocacy (Tearfund)
tilz.tearfund.org/Publications/Footsteps+41-50/Footsteps+45/

o Why advocate for water, sanitation and hygiene? (Tearfund)
www.tearfund.org/webdocs/Website/Campaigning/Policy%20and%20research/Why_advocate_on_Water_Hygiene_and_Sanitation.pdf

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

If you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.

Isaiah 58.6-8, 10-11

A Spirituality of Resistance?

In Isaiah's vision of justice and sharing, the promise is '"you shall be like a watered garden ... whose waters never fail." It is our Lenten hope that the waters of the garden of the earth will never fail for any of God's creatures.

We can be part of a process of transformation, a light shining in the darkness. The promise of access to clean water for all the earth's people can seem far off. The walk towards water justice is long, just as is the walk to the well or pump in many places. The vision of justice Isaiah speaks of can come about through many of us taking small steps.

The prophet Isaiah makes the link between fasting and justice clear. While the hungry still need food and the homeless a roof, God's call is for justice not for perfectly formulated prayers or proof of complete self-control. It's a down-to-earth call for water, food, shelter and clothing.

Fasting is a valued spiritual discipline in many religious traditions. It develops a capacity to live with less and can open us up to share what we have with others. It can also help develop a spirituality of resistance.

Nelson Mandela in his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom described how as he became more politically active he trained himself to make do with less food, so that if taken prisoner his body and spirit would be less easily broken or bribed by the need for food.

Lent gives us the opportunity to take up the challenge of practising a spirituality of resistance in our own contexts. To learn to be hungry and thirsty, physically and also metaphorically. Can we change our eating habits for one or two days a week and eat less meat during these seven weeks? Can we spend less on ourselves and share more? Can we use less water?

Jane Stranz (WCC)

Together we can make a difference

Fasting is not about success or failure but about learning. Did you already know that most water is not spent for drinking, cooking, gardening or flushing the toilet, but in the production of food and the many other products we consume? Were you aware that when you order a steak you are actually "eating" about 3000 litres of water which have flowed into the production of the meat - all too often in countries where people might not even have access to a minimum of safe drinking water?

• Think about how much water you consume indirectly every week and where it might come from. You'll find helpful information and a water footprint calculator on www.waterfootprint.org
• Build a "Virtual Water Cube" and then test people's knowledge maybe in front of the local supermarket or at school or church. How much water does it take to grow a kilo of rice, wheat, beef, chicken, milk, cotton?
• Are there people in your town or village suffering from a lack of access to water?

Links to further information:

Virtual water footprint www.waterfootprint.org

"Hunger through Choice" - Read about the traditions of fasting (in English)


Please note, fasting can be dangerous to your health and should not be undertaken without proper planning.

I will open rivers on the bare heights
And springs in the midst of the valleys;
I will make the wilderness a pool of water
And the dry land fountains of water.
Isaiah 41:18

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
Psalm 42.1

What do we thirst for?

The biblical promise from the prophet Isaiah is that the dry lands can spring with fountains, that wells of fresh water are possible, even in the desert, even when there is no justice in the way water is distributed and paid for.

The beginning of Lent focuses on the desert, remembering the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry and how the people of God were fed during their desert wanderings in the book of Exodus.

Lent is a time for spiritual reflection, for thinking, learning and renewed commitment. A time to discover and listen to the physical and spiritual thirsts of our world and link that to our own thirst and God's promise of water in the desert.

More than a billion people thirst for access to enough clean water. Across the world inland lakes and seas dry up, rivers continue to be polluted and deserts increase in size. Making water a fundamental human right is a matter of survival for one in six human beings.

As Christians begin the Lenten pilgrimage we recognize that we live on a planet of plenty yet are nevertheless in a parched place, longing like the deer for living waters, thirsting for God's promise of water and of justice.

The image of water refreshing the desert offers a deep well of hope to all living through the devastation of drought and death. In all human yearning for meaning, satisfaction, peace and justice, water in the desert offers the real hope of renewal and profound change.

Written by Jane Stranz (WCC)

Together we can make a difference.

• Test your water knowledge with the BBC Water Crisis Quiz
• Think about what people thirst for in your town or village?
• How can your church raise awareness of water issues?
• Is there a local or national water campaign you could become active in?

Links to further information:

• Thirsty Souls & Parched Lands (A Church World Service series on water, .pdf / 760kb)
• Human Right to Water (Campaign website of Bread for the World Germany)