"Still in too many places 'sister water' is seriously polluted, disputed, irresponsibly wasted, or used according to priorities that do not correspond to human dignity and do not contribute to the protection of life on earth". Indeed, 'today more than two billion people are deprived of access to drinking water and/or sanitation', and this scarcity aggravates the conditions of the most vulnerable, such as 'patients in health centers, women giving birth, prisoners, refugees and displaced persons'.
It is from these considerations - against the backdrop of the principles expressed by Pope Francis in the Encyclical Laudato si' - that the preface to the volume Aqua Fons Vitae. Valuing and caring for a common good: water. Acta Post Webinar, edited by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the multilingual publication brings together the Acts of the five online conferences promoted by the Dicastery of the Holy See in March 2021, dedicated to the management of water resources: a challenge with ethical, health, cultural, social, economic and political implications, which cannot fail to recognize water as a common good and access to drinking water as a universal fundamental right. An urgency of which the Holy Father speaks in his Message for World Water Day 2021, where he launches an "appeal to all political and economic leaders and decision-makers (...) and to all those who are in a position to direct research, financing, education and the exploitation of natural resources and of water in particular, that they may do well to serve the common good worthily, with determination, integrity and in a spirit of cooperation".
By bringing together different perspectives of analysis in a single text, the volume aims to offer a multidisciplinary and at the same time organic contribution. These are the authors of the collected writings: Luke Gabriel Lily Mendes; Rowena Soriaga; Pablo Martínez de Anguita and Nuria Navarro; Gabriela Sacco and Luis Liberman; Gonzalo Sales Genovés; Silvano Maria Tomasi; Abdoulaye Sene; Fadi Georges Comair; Henri Muhiya Musabate; Joseph O'Donnel; Amelia Ma'afu and Martin De Jong; Antonio Di Natale; Luigino Bruni; Olcay Ünver and Colby Howell; Gidon Bromberg; Martina Klimes and Elizabeth A. Koch (Yaari); Tebaldo Vinciguerra. All their contributions were inspired by the Aqua fons vitae guidelines, published in 2020 by the Dicastery and are already available on our website.