Issue Number 52 - November 2003

Water Circle Update

This group has been meeting in Brisbane for the last six months as part of the SAO campaign on water issues and the Murray-Darling Basin. The group is developing a perspective which focuses on Queensland’s relationship to the Murray-Darling Basin and emphasises the Queensland electoral perspective.

As part of its work to date the group has completed the following tasks:

• Reviewed its values with regard to water, the environment and Catholic Social Teaching;
• Made contact with over 140 religious who live in the Murray-Darling Basin and the Bishops of the ten dioceses in the Basin;
• Conducted policy research and identified policy issues where reform agenda is required;
• Developed a Water Week Reflection that received a positive response and resulted in a process of developing buddy contacts across the Basin and with members of the Water Circle.

Current activities include an urgent action responding to the need for water management and services to be excluded from the US Free Trade Agreement, and identifying action goals and strategies for the upcoming electoral cycle in 2004. The focus of strategies will include:

• the development of an urban regional solidarity with the regards to the Basin;
• raising consciousness regarding the need to collaborate across disciplines and borders to address the complexities of the issue;
• reducing the risks associated with the privatisation of water as a commodity, rather than a resource to share.

The Water Circle, a positive and learning group, believes they add value to the water debate by heartening “Spirituality to the Triple Bottom Line”.

The next meeting of the Water Circle will be on Thursday 5 February 2004 at 6.00pm at Justice Place.

Victoria Kearney, Project Worker