The Catholic Social Teaching is a set of central beliefs common for all human beings, regardless of religion, dating back to the mid-19th century. Since the Industrial Revolution, Catholic Social Teaching has evolved in response to the challenges humans face in the present day while advocating for the dignity of human life, human rights, and the human responsibility for mitigating poverty. Still, despite the rapid changes the world undergoes throughout the years, the Catholic Social Teaching and its themes stay relevant. Whether it be protecting the Life and Dignity of the Human Person, providing a Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable, or Caring for God’s Creation, the Catholic Social Teaching aims to make the world a more just, equitable place, specifically involving water.

This document--focused on improving human dignity and conscience--stresses how water must be accessible to everyone to ensure the dignity of all human beings. In our present economy, water is treated as a commodity and a public good controlled by public agencies. Because of their control of water, these public agencies threaten the life and dignity of humankind. The document states that “The right to water, as all human rights, finds its basis in human dignity,” meaning the expansion of water access is morally and ethically imperative to improve the human condition. Once the dignity, or the respect and treatment of all humans improves, then the accessibility to water, and therefore life, drastically improves as well. 

Providing a Preferential Option for the Poor and Vulnerable is essential for combatting the effects of water scarcity. We must examine the world from the perspective of the poor, vulnerable, and marginalized, for if we prioritize the need for water for the poor, everyone will thrive, not only the upper class. 

In his encyclical Laudato Si’, Pope Francis offers a dialogue with all people who inhabit Earth—our common home—specifically about how we are destroying it through the exploitation of nature. Therefore, as the Pope decrees, our job as God’s creation is to care for the Earth and its environment, not use the Earth’s natural resources for economic gain. As industrialization and materialism become more severe, the quality of water drastically diminishes. Because smoke from pollution and non-renewable resources have a ubiquitous presence globally, water becomes more and more unsafe, causing deaths and the spread of diseases. Therefore, to prevent an acute water shortage within a few decades, humanity must protect the already dwindling water supply.