Water & Spirituality

Water & Spirituality | Water Conservation | Water Adaptation Community (WAC) 2021

Key Questions Addressed:
- What does a spiritual view on climate challenges look like?
- Can spirituality prove to be a source of resilience to climate change effects?
- How do we build upon our water-related cultural heritage, to forge strategies for climate change adaptation?

People have always understood the value of water to sustain life, health, economies and ecosystems. A lot of cultural heritage has been built around water over the millennia. Examples are civil structures for water supply and for defence against water-related perils, for navigation, and for the generation of energy. Also part of this heritage are the governance systems set up for equitable and efficient management of water resources. Besides, societies and religions have developed a multitude of visions, rituals and practises related to water.

Despite the abundance of water-related cultural heritage, its significance for present and future climate challenges is not widely recognised. This partly due to the complexity of our relationship with water, and partly because of disciplinary and institutional divides between water managers and heritage experts.

The ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Water and Heritage (ISC Water) works on bridging these divides - through dialogues among political, professional and spiritual leaders, interdisciplinary research, collection and dissemination of best practises, and development of guidelines. For the Global Adaptation Summit held in January 2021, ISC Water organised a webinar that articulated how the cultural heritage of water can prove to be a source of adaptive capacity in the face of climate change.

As a contribution to the UNFCCC COP 26 to be held in Glasgow, UK (November 2021) and to kickstart the Community of Practitioners on Water and Heritage, GCA’s Water Adaptation Community (WAC) and ISC Water are organising a dialogue among spiritual leaders, who will discuss water-related spirituality as a source of inspiration and wisdom to cope with climate change impacts on the water cycle - such as the increase in the frequency of droughts, floods and storms. This will be a precursor to the dialogue among spiritual leaders to be held at the UN Water Decade Mid Term Review to be held in New York (2023).