17 September 2020 – Under the auspices of the Holy See, the World Water Council participated in the Virtual Water Forum «From the Right to Water to the Right to Hope » organized by Encuentro Mundi and the Pan Amazon Ecclesial Network(REPAM).
President Loïc Fauchon was invited as panelist together with renowned experts and intellectuals to speak during the final day of the Forum.
Cardinal Cláudio Hummes opened the meeting by encouraging legal efforts for better access to water and sanitation as a mean for greater social justice and peace. Serving as the President of REPAM, a network promoting the rights of people living in the Amazon, he stressed that political and economic interests should not prevail over human life.
Highlighting the needs encountered on the ground and the responses to deliver, Loïc Fauchon underlined that the « Right to water is meaningless without its prerequisite: access to water. No access means no right ». He stressed the need for political will to ensure water security for all. He invited all the attendees to participate in the 9th World Water Forum to favor an inclusive dialogue under the theme of « Water security for peace and development ».
Intervening as co-panelists, Carlos Nobre, member of the IPCC focused on the impact of climate change in the Amazonia, while Daniel Groody, Vice-President of the University of Notre-Dame, presented the effects of migration and its impacts on human development from a theological standing point.
To conclude the interventions, Noam Chomsky, the American linguist and philosopher, presented the major threats posed to humanity and the role played by water for humans to thrive.