Naples, August 24, 2009
APPEAL TO THE COMMUNITY 'IN ITALY CHRISTIAN
save water
We are on the eve of the Fourth Day of Creation (September 1, 2009). The Italian Bishops' Conference has devoted his message for World Day of Creation to the theme of air and invited to reflect on 'greenhouse gases' and the Copenhagen Conference (7-8 December 2009). We can not forget that the most serious and devastating consequences of climate change concerned the water, both in terms of available quantitative and qualitative. "You can not negotiate the future of humanity - writes R. Petrella, in respect of the Copenhagen conference - without taking into account the water. It seems that some countries are oriented to propose that water is part of the agenda for the new global treaty. It must be peace in the world and the sacredness of life. " For this reason I feel obliged to speak to the Christian Communities in Italy, to help us to save water by joining the huge popular movement that is evident in the Italian Forum of water movements, to force our government and political forces to assert that water is a common good, basic human right and as such must be managed by special public corporations. Unfortunately, August 6, 2008, the Italian Parliament with Law 133, voted Tremonti Decree 112, with that article 23 bis, which requires municipalities to auction the management of their water systems by December 31, 2010 . This happened with the support of the opposition, particularly the PD and in almost total silence from the national press. The Berlusconi government in Italy has decided that water is a commodity. It 'a decision of an extreme gravity of this privatization of water that directly affects us as Christians. Here, in fact, has called on Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Social Caritas in Veritate, arguing strongly that water is a basic human right. "The right to food as well as water, has an important role in the pursuit of other rights, starting with the basic right to life - the Pope writes, and 'therefore necessary to cultivate a conscience that considers the' power and access to water as a universal right of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination "(No. 66). The right to water flows, for the Pope, the fundamental right to life. There are many experts today who believe that this is the legal basis for safer to found the water right, even an international twist. It'll have the UN declare that right. For this, the eve of the Fourth Day of Creation, which is celebrated in all churches in Italy, 1 September 2009, it seems appropriate to launch an SOS to the water. Mine is an urgent invitation to all Christian communities and all the parishes to commit themselves to ensure that:
1) the Italian government to recognize water as a basic human right and promotes models of nonprofit management;
2) the Italian parliament started discussing the law of popular initiative for a public and participatory water management as well as its ripubblicizzazione (2007), which had over 400 thousand signatures and time 'asleep', unfortunately, the Environment Committee of the House;
3) the Italian Episcopal Conference, in the wake of the Encyclical "Caritas in Veritate, proclaims the basic human right to water. Defending
water, defend life.
Alex Zanotelli
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