As we come to the end of the Season of Creation 2026 we reflect on the topic of Living Water. Water gives life. Water sustains life. It is fundamental to our world. In some parts of the world, however, clean water is scarce and people may have great difficulty obtaining it. Furthermore, as our climate changes due to human-induced global warming, patterns of rainfall also change. The rhythm of the natural world and its water cycle is disrupted and the annual rains may not fall as previously expected. Some areas have become drier with some villages and communities finding the desert encroaching on their land. Yet at the same time, other areas experience wetter conditions and floods. Stronger storms form as a result of higher heating. And higher temperatures often lead to higher evaporation rates and more water vapour in the atmosphere that eventually must fall as greater precipitation. Humans and nature have evolved to cope with one rainfall pattern and the recent climate changes require an increasingly faster adaptation than the local flora, fauna and human population can cope with.
There are other human-induced stressors on the water system too. Water may be preferentially taken from local water sources for industry or industrial-scale agriculture, putting additional pressure on the system. Even some people in countries blessed with abundant water resources are now having conversations about data centre water use, for example. Water is often too easily polluted by human activities and waste. The encyclical Laudato Si’ brings the issue of water to the fore: see Laudato Si’ 27-31. Laudato Si’ 30 reminds us how “access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights“.
Take a moment to consider the importance of water and pray that our societies may support “an increase in funding to provide clean water and sanitary services among the poor” and that we may all strive to conserve water and acknowledge its central role in our planetary life support system.
