Water our hydration, habitat and health

Water is life; it is our hydration, habitat, and health. Our faith traditions teach us to revere this resource, to give thanks when it is abundant and to cherish it when it is scarce.  Water as health, habitat, and hydration is also an issue of sustainability and social justice.  From the biblical books of Genesis to Revelation, water, like land, is a gift and a blessing.  In his encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, recorded in John chapter 4, Jesus expressed his own thirst – as he was later to do on the cross – and offered living water.

Water is sacred. We need to use it responsibly.  Harvest rainwater. Re-use water. Every drop counts.

Let us affirm the right to water as a human right. Let us work for water justice – for a world in which there is sufficient water for all: a world in which inequality is overcome, poverty eradicated and people have a greater say in the access to and distribution of water.  Let us also work to change the destructive economic systems that perpetuate injustice, ensure ecological destruction and accelerate climate change.

God of the deep ocean and the tiny brook,
we praise you and adore you for the gift of water that sustains all life.
We remember with thanksgiving
the manifold manifestations of your grace through the gift of water.

God, the very source of life,
whose spirit hovered over waters at the time of creation;
You God Incarnate, who came as living waters to quench the thirsty;
God the Holy Spirit, who waters and brings forth the fruit;
We come to your presence ashamed of our apathy and insincerity towards the abuse of water and other natural resources,

We ask you to inspire us to be challenged to conserve, preserve and use water wisely.

Grant us forgiveness so that we act responsibly in our use of water,
May we become sensitive to the desperate needs of those without water,
and gain wisdom in conserving and preserving water, so that rivers roll out in justice among all nations and all peoples.

Amen.

_{Our Ocean, Our Future, Our Responsibility}

The Third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) is in Nice from June 9 to 13, 2025.  Ten years after COP21 and the Paris Agreement, UNOC3 intends to bring together all UN member states, their heads of state and government, international agencies, local authorities, civil society, the private sector and international donors. UNOC3 will be focused on « Accelerating action and mobilising all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean » and will seek to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG14), with three main priorities, in order to produce an ambitious Nice Ocean Action Plan:

1. Work towards the successful completion of ocean-related multilateral processes to raise the level of ambition for ocean protection.
2. Mobilizing funding for SDG14 and supporting the development of a sustainable blue economy.
3. Strengthen and better disseminate marine science knowledge for better policy-making.

The Nice Ocean Action Plan, composed of a political declaration as well as a list of voluntary commitments from stakeholders, will be adopted following international discussions during the Conference.

“The ocean is fundamental to life on our planet and to our future. The ocean is an important source of the planet’s biodiversity and plays a vital role in the climate system and water cycle. The ocean provides a range of ecosystem services, supplies us with oxygen to breathe, contributes to food security, nutrition and decent jobs and livelihoods, acts as a sink and reservoir of greenhouse gases and protects biodiversity, provides a means for maritime transportation, including for global trade, forms an important part of our natural and cultural heritage and plays an essential role in sustainable development, a sustainable ocean-based economy and poverty eradication.”

– political declaration of the 2022 united nations ocean conference

The high-level 2025 United Nations Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (the 2025 UN Ocean Conference) will be co-hosted by France and Costa Rica and held in Nice, France, from 9 – 13 June 2025.

See https://unocnice2025.org/en/