Water for Life Campaign Spreads to Willamette Valley Churches

“If we want democracy and political stability around the world, the first thing we need to ensure is that people are not thirsty” - Professor Susan Smith

Professor Susan Smith Courtesy: Willamette University

(SALEM, Ore.) - For many people, Lent means going without for a few weeks, but for 2 billion people, going without is a way of life. Willamette University Professor Susan Smith is helping address the imbalance. Three years ago the environmental law professor established the Water for Life campaign in the Willamette Valley. She asked members of her church congregation to give up soda and lattes during Lent, drink water instead, and send the savings overseas to an “adopted” village to help provide water.

“Every 15 seconds a child dies from a disease that would have been preventable with clean drinking water,” said Smith, who provides pro bono legal expertise to the World Council of Churches about water as an inalienable right.

“I thought the only way we can begin to deal with the global water crisis is one village at a time. We all belong to communities — academic, religious, social — and so I started with my village, my church, and we reached out to another village.”

The first year of donations financed a well in Kenya. The next year’s Lenten offerings funded a system to channel water from wells to homes in Honduras.

Last year thousands of dollars went to Haiti. Smith’s movement is now spreading to other congregations in the Willamette Valley, who are adopting their own villages — and building rainwater catchments and storage systems around the globe.

“If we want democracy and political stability around the world, the first thing we need to ensure is that people are not thirsty,” said Smith, who is working toward a master of divinity degree and plans to push water justice as part of her ministry.

Professor Smith has spent more than 20 years litigating environmental and natural resources issues, overseeing nearly 1,000 court cases as senior trial attorney and assistant with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. Her current research focuses on the role of law in achieving sustainability, and her books include the authoritative Crimes Against the Environment. Smith co-founded the Certificate Program in Sustainable Environmental, Energy and Resources Law at Willamette and established the Environmental Law Prof Blog, which receives visitors from around the world. She has served as pro bono counsel for environmental and community groups.