Spirituality and Water: Have We Reached a Utopia?

“Marseille Water Ethics” is a new initiative announced on 15 March by Kathryn Kintzele, Co-Chair of the Biosphere Ethics Initiative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature. This is a living project designed to enhance sustainable attitudes and ethical issues associated with water resource utilisation and management. 
Jean Conrad, from the Catholic International Education Office, started his presentation with “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again, but everybody that drinks the water I give him will never thirst" John 4:13. Then he elaborated that when water policies, laws and economics derive from that ethical basis, we are better able to have an authentic debate about the values that the concerned communities want to uphold. 

Ethical analysis does not solve problems. Instead, it lays out the problems in terms that allow for easily finding solutions. Murad Bino, Executive Director of Inter-Islamic Network on Water Resources Development and Management (INWRDAM) explained if the waters were clean and the air was pure, everything would be in harmony with God’s plan. Water is life and it is respected for various reasons in many cultures and religions. It is necessary for survival and that makes it a key aspect of many cultures. 
Speakers and attendees of the session agreed that what is needed is to connect the dots to reveal the beautiful design that can become the way that societies choose to respond to rivers, lakes, springs, wetlands and aquifers. In a world facing changes and growth, crises and turmoils, emotional and spiritual well-being are not only foundations but aspects of a healthy and fulfilling life.