Press release: Bishops from across continents walk in solidarity against water poverty

In an image released to mark World Water Day (March 22) bishops from the UK and Zimbabwe walk in support of CAFOD’s Thirst for Change campaign to end water poverty.

Bishop of Hallam John Rawsthorne and Bishop Michael Bhasera of Masvingo diocese in Zimbabwe, with CAFOD supporters and community members carrying water, hope to highlight this week’s World Walks for Water taking place all around the world with more than 350,000 people taking action to call for an end to the crisis on water and sanitation.

People are walking in over 60 countries from Bangladesh to Benin, Nigeria to Norway and Mozambique to Malaysia. They are walking in solidarity with the millions of people – overwhelmingly women and children - who walk great distances each day to collect water for their basic needs and the billions who have no safe place to go to the toilet. CAFOD is part of the coalition End Water Poverty that organises World Walks for Water each year.

Bishop Bhasera said from south-east Zimbabwe: “This is a vital campaign because water is a basic need and everyone has the right to it. It is easy to take water for granted when it is there, but it is so much more than just water – it is a lifeline and foundation for communities and individuals.

“Here in Zimbabwe where we are facing droughts, water is important for domestic and commercial use; being able to have clean water reduces disease, it increases development and lets people be independent and have time to get on with their lives, and that means water empowers people socially and economically.”

Bishop Rawsthorne said from south Yorkshire: “We are walking today because it is right to stand beside those who are still fighting for clean water and safe sanitation. This is 2012 and it is astonishing that hundreds of millions are living without something so fundamental.

The UK government should do everything in its power to help communities like Bishop Bhasera’s who are not only struggling without water infrastructure but with repeated droughts.”

In 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, 189 world leaders signed onto the Millennium Declaration agreeing to meet eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015. The MDGs are a road map with measurable targets and clear deadlines for improving the lives of the world's poorest people. The seventh MDG seeks to halve the number of people without access to clean water and safe sanitation.

It was announced recently that the target to halve the number of people living without access to drinking water has been met five years early.

CAFOD campaigner Katy Harris said: “This is a major global achievement but there is no time for complacency - 783 million people still lack access to clean drinking water. And despite the fact that globally we have kept to our promises, there are wide regional disparities - 31 out of the 50 countries in sub-Saharan Africa are still not on track to meet the drinking water target.

“As usual it is the poorest who must wait the longest. What’s more, there is another half of this target that has not yet been met: to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to basic sanitation. 2.5 billion people still lack toilets and sewage systems which are vital for human health and dignity, and diarrhoea is still the single biggest killer of children in sub-Saharan Africa. On current trends, it will be 350 years before Africa has universal access to both water AND sanitation - which must go hand-in-hand if the health benefits are to be achieved. Amidst the celebrations, it is more important than ever that we send a strong message to our government and remind them that their work is not yet done.”

This Lent CAFOD is calling on David Cameron to lead the way on ending water poverty. The UK must use its international leadership on the issue of overseas development to press world leaders to end water poverty.

The UK government must continue to lead by example in the G8 negotiations in 2012 and they must push hard for:

• Concrete political and financial commitments to ensure the water and sanitation MDG is met by 2015; and
• Full endorsement by all G8 countries of the international ‘Sanitation and Water for All’ initiative

Photo from L-R UK image : Joe Wood, Clare Gardner, Alex Krzyz, Angela Wood, Kasper Lambert, Grace Boyfield, Bishop John Rawsthorne; Zimbabwe image: Bishop Michael Bhasera, Rosiwita Harrison, Mutume Emmaculate, Rumbidzai Harrison, Agnes Chanyau, Clara Marimbe, Sylvester Harrison

1. CAFOD’s Thirst for Change campaign launched on 2 January 2012, the final date for returning campaign action cards and messages of support is 1 May 2012. The campaigning period encompasses the full season of Lent (22 Feb -7 April), CAFOD’s Lent Fast Day (2 March) and World Water Day (22 March).

2. CAFOD is one of 185 members of the End Water Poverty coalition which organises World Walks for Water.

3. CAFOD is the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development which works with communities in 40 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, working to fight poverty and injustice. The agency works with all people regardless of race, gender, religion or nationality

For more information contact Pascale Palmer ppalmer@cafod.org.uk 020 7095 5459