Water justice issues in Africa are the focus of the Ecumenical Water Network’s annual Lenten campaign this year.
Launched at a service in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on Ash Wednesday, the campaign will highlight the inequality, stigma and discrimination people face in relation to their use of water as well as the “feminisation of water poverty” being seen in Africa. Weekly theological reflections and other resources will be uploaded on the EWN website every week during the ‘Seven Weeks for Water’ campaign.
UN data shows that about half of the 663 million people without access to safe drinking water live in sub-Saharan Africa which is also home to 695 million people without improved sanitation facilities. The data also shows that in 45 developing countries, women and girls are responsible for water collection in seven out of ten households.
Speaking at the service in Ethiopia this week, Dr Agnes Abuom, the moderator of the World Council of Churches – which oversees the EWN, said the water crisis in Africa “falls heavily on women and children, who are walking miles and miles to look for a water”. “On behalf of World Council of Churches, I invite everyone to resist commodification and commercialisation of water at the expense of poor people.”
Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the WCC, said in a sermon at the service that it was time for “water justice”. “It is time for us who are here and all human beings to stop resisting justice. We cannot in the long run stop justice, as we cannot stop the water”.
