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The third Biblical reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2014 is by Guillermo Kerber, the World Council of Churches programme executive for Care for Creation and Climate Justice. Based on a personal experience of a pilgrimage on water in the Bible, he underscores water as the “source of life” and introduces water as the protagonist of crucial moments in the history of people’s lives in the Bible.

The second Biblical reflection of the Seven Weeks for Water 2014 is by Bishop Dr Heinrich Bedford-Strohm of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria, Germany. Citing  examples from the Bible, he highlights that water is absolutely necessary for life and that everybody has the right of free access to water for their sustenance,  irrespective of their economic status.

The psalmist once declared, “The Earth is the Lord’s, and all that is in it” (Psalm 24:1). From generation to generation, we have a lifespan to enjoy and steward God’s Earth. However, in recent decades, industries that unsustainably extract from God’s Earth have been spinning out of control. Their actions challenge God's sovereignty over the gifts that were created for sharing by  all Creation and for all generations. Extractive and other industries have been privatizing the natural gifts of God’s Earth and have excluded local communities from sharing in these gifts.

Water is a big issue and a question of justice. For some communities there is no water to irrigate land, or clean water to wash and drink. For other communities there may be plenty of water but it comes in unwelcome destructive episodes whether deluge from the sky, floods from rivers or the rising tide of the sea. 

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.