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CWS celebrates World Environment Day
Children getting water at the new tap in their community in Malawi.
Photo: Christian Service Committee (CSC)
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New York -- As part of the global celebration of World Environment Day, Church World Service is continuing its focus on water as a human right, and the increasing scarcity of the vital resource as one of the effects of climate change.
CWS is working with partners in the United States and around the world to educate people, to encourage citizen action, and to advocate in support of national and international policies that affect the environment, including environmental sustainability objectives contained in the Millennium Development Goals.
The agency also supports sustainable development initiatives that help provide livelihoods for people without further degrading the Earth’s increasingly fragile environment.
World Environment Day is celebrated each year on 5 June as a way of increasing worldwide awareness of the environment and enhancing political attention and action. (Read more about World Environment Day at www.unep.org/wed/2007/english/)
In the news
- Young adults tackle water issues at 'Thirst for Life' Conference
- Church World Service and partners prepare to act on climate change
- Agency hails Supreme Court climate change decision
- From the Executive Director's Desk...Water: A fundamental justice
- Ecumenical Water Network calls for holistic approach to water issues (from the World Council of Churches)
What you can do
Learn more about water issues and sustainable development
- What Church World Service is doing about water - CWS Water For All
- Ecosystem management in Kenya - Watershed Protection is Vital
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Indigenous people along the Pilcomayo try to save a polluted river needed for fishing - Food security through rehabilitation of the soil in Ethiopia
- Effective land use in the Chaco region of South America
- Fair trade coffee grown using sustainable agricultural practices
Learn about the Millennium Development Goals
One key element of ensuring environmental sustainability is providing access to safe, affordable water for all. A strategy for doing this is to integrate the principles of sustainable development into national and international policies and programs and to reverse the loss of environmental resources. CWS and partners are working to accomplish the seventh Millennium Development Goal: to ensure environmental sustainability.
Advocate in support of policies that affect the environment
Show a video
- Borrow a video with an environmental theme from the CWS Film & Video Library.
- Other video resources:
- Troubled Waters www.troubledwatersdoc.com
This 60-minute nationally broadcast documentary produced by the United Church of Christ with Church World Service support, examines why water has become a scarce resource in some places and some of the challenges faced by people seeking access to clean, safe drinking water and adequate sanitation. It complements the Water for All campaign on which Church World Service and Global Ministries of the UCC are working with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
- Reclaiming Water www.sparklehouse.com/angela/WaterEverywhere.html
The story of grassroots activists who attended the 2002 Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, determined to present alternatives to strategies for managing and financing water.
- Troubled Waters www.troubledwatersdoc.com
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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