Pope Francis’ visit focuses on the Catholic Church’s request for forgiveness and reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous nations. That said, his visit to Quebec opens the door to a reminder of the significance of July 28, the day of the universal right to water, a fundamental issue for the future of the planet developed at length in his encyclical Laudate If. Two dimensions hold our attention: the vital importance of access to water everywhere on the planet and, on the other hand, the positions and role of economic powers in the management of this natural resource essential to life.
The Pope’s pithy observation deserves particular attention: “While the quality of available water is constantly deteriorating, there is a growing tendency, in certain places, to privatize this limited resource, transformed into a commodity subject to the laws of the market. In fact, access to drinking and safe water is a primordial, fundamental and universal human right, because it determines the survival of people, and therefore it is a condition for the exercise of other fundamental rights. . »
Pope Francis’ position is just as significant, impactful and strategic as the “water manifesto” signed by Ricardo Petrella in 1997 for the Agora of the inhabitants of the Earth.
But why July 28, 2022? On July 28, 2010, the government of Venezuela presented a resolution to the United Nations General Assembly, supported by 121 States, the vast majority of them being countries of the South, for a day to be dedicated to recalling the formal recognition of the universal right of access to water. Sword in the water? On the contrary, it made waves.
The developed countries, led by the United States, followed by 11 countries of the European Union, expressed their opposition; subsequently, these economically and politically dominant countries adopted the strategy of silence and oblivion or tried by all means to prevent the recognition of this right in policies and practices. Instead, they recovered the meaning of this resolution by highlighting access to water on “a fair basis at an affordable price”, a euphemism for valuing the commodification of water, too often subject to the dictates of large transnational corporations. like Coca-Cola and the like. The universal right of access to water therefore does not evolve on a flat ideological sea.
Since 2010, the countries of the South have constantly demanded this recognition. The movement goes with the flow like a calm river alive and well in many parts of the world, but in most rich countries, we are groping in the fog of indifference and neglect. As long as there is no shortage of water to green the lawns, we ignore drought, deforestation, desertification and climate change.
Laudate If denounces the abuses of water consumption and all human interventions in industries, agriculture, fishing, overconsumption. We analyze all the deleterious and disastrous effects of the commodification of water and the dramatic effects of such practices, in particular in the countries of the South.
Meanwhile, in the so-called developed countries, the denial of problems and ignorance still contribute to giving free rein to unbridled consumption. Yet, Pope Francis recalls: “It is foreseeable that the control of water by large global corporations will become one of the main sources of conflict in this century. […] We need to reinforce the awareness that we are one human family. There are no borders or political or social barriers that allow us to isolate ourselves, and for that very reason, there is no room for the globalization of indifference either. Wise and meaningful words.
Recognition of the universal right to access to water is the basis for sustainable, just, peaceful and above all urgent development.