March 21. Human Rights Day.  Zanela shared, “Today we commemorate Human Rights Day in South Africa. It commemorates an ugly but a sad incident in our political history. In Sharpeville in 1960, in one of the first anti-apartheid demonstrations, police fired on a crowd killing 69 and wounding up to 250 people. In commemorative speeches on many such occasions it is so often said, “Never again.” And yet other incidents like this have occurred over the years and human life at times appears to be too cheap. Political and relationship conflicts deny the right to life to men and women, to strangers, foreigners and those close to us, a right which is the most basic of human rights.  I believe that in speaking of human rights we should consider the rights of families as units not only as individual people.  Look how many families are struggling at this time to access water, which should be free and clean as a basic right for everyone.

Scripture: The prophet Ezekiel speaks of his vision:  On the banks on both sides of the river there will grow all kinds of trees for food.  Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fall, but they will bear fresh fruit every month because the water for them flows from the sanctuary. Wherever the rives goes every living creature will live.  Eze 47:1-12. 

Pope Francis:  Even as the quality of available water is constantly diminishing in some places there is a growing tendency, despite its scarcity to privatise this resource, turning it into a commodity subject to the laws of the market.  Yet access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right.  Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet’s water supply but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons.  Marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans is affected by massive waste pollution, especially plastic which is non-biodegradable. LS40. 

St Francis: Praised be You my Lord through Sister Water, So useful, humble, precious and pure. “Someday after mastering the winds the waters, the tides and gravity we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”  T de Chardin from THE PHENOMENON OF MAN.

Reflect, share, act, pray. Research and share on the issue of water and how its use is manipulated today resulting in great suffering for families. Many forms of saving water can be practiced at home. Think of all the possibilities you can choose.