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The cholera crisis in Zimbabwe is a chilling illustration of the crucial link between water, sanitation, health and political responsibility.  By the middle of February 2009, the WHO noted that over 70,000 people were infected and 3,524 had died.  

Like the ticking of a clock marking out time, water drips noisily. Maybe it drips off the edge of a stone or roof in times of rain and plenty, or perhaps from a badly turned off tap in societies where earth's most precious and vital resource is unconsciously wasted.

Water is symbolic of our relationship with God, carrying the image of renewal, promise and hope. It is through water that we are baptized into the community of the church. Furthermore, water is essential to all life on Earth, and it links human life to the rest of God's creation. 

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

"How can we design an economy that provides a better quality of life for all within the ecological limits of the planet?" This question is at the centre of the Green Economy debate. 

Several articles from Contact primarily dedicated to the problem of HIV/AIDS and malaria.