Church body disappointed with World Water Forum declaration

Governments, civil society organisations and Christian agencies have expressed their disappointment that the ministerial declaration adopted at the World Water Forum in Istanbul does not include a reconfirmation of water as a human right.

"It is difficult to understand that the Forum has produced such a text while the consensus of the international community of states is already much more advanced," commented Michael Windfuhr, human rights director of Bread for the World, an agency of the Evangelical Church in Germany.

At the Forum which ended on 22 March, World Water Day, representatives of governments and civil society had repeatedly demanded that the ministerial declaration should recognise the right to water. Nevertheless the declaration that was adopted in the closing of the conference only talks of water as a basic human need.

"Many member states of the United Nations have already recognised the existence of the right to water in statements, conferences, and their domestic law," highlighted Windfuhr, who is also chair of the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN).

Only last year the members of the Human Rights Council of the United Nations had unanimously adopted a resolution which recognised the existence of "human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation".

"The relevance of the declaration is also questionable due to the fact that the process which led to the ministerial declaration at the World Water Forum was not transparent as it would have been within the framework of the United Nations," Windfuhr added.

"Discussions and decisions about the future of responsible water management should therefore better take place in the context of the United Nations to ensure better transparency and equal access to the process for different governments and other stakeholders."

Several governments expressed their disagreement with the ministerial declaration.

"We recognise that access to water and sanitation is a human right and we are committed to all necessary actions for the progressive implementation of this right," reads a complementary declaration which according to information from the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) was adopted by Bolivia, Uruguay, Spain, Guatemala, Ecuador, Cuba and Chile, with support also from Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, Ethiopia, Honduras, Morocco, Namibia, Niger, Panama, Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and South Africa.

Churches and Christian organisations have formed the Ecumenical Water Network in order to raise awareness among Christians worldwide about the global water crisis, unjust distribution of the resource and the needs of affected communities. One example is the EWN campaign Seven Weeks for Water, offering weekly meditations for the time before Easter.