From October 1 to 3, 2025, the Amazon Water Summit will be held in the city of Iquitos (Peru), an event that seeks to raise awareness, dialogue, and commitment around one of the most sacred and threatened resources of our time: water.
The initiative, promoted by the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos, under the leadership of Monsignor Miguel Ángel Cadenas, and accompanied by the Ecclesial Conference of the Amazon (CEAMA), calls on bishops, community leaders, scientists, representatives of indigenous peoples, social organizations, and international agencies to reflect and act on the challenges facing water in the Amazon region.
Water, the heart of the Amazon
The Amazon is one of the largest reservoirs of fresh water on the planet. Its rivers, lakes, ponds, and wetlands not only sustain the lives of millions of people in the Amazonian territories, but are also vital to the global climate balance. However, water faces growing threats: pollution from extractive activities, deforestation, illegal mining, oil spills, as well as the impacts of climate change that alter natural cycles and put the lives of entire communities and ecosystems at risk.
Water in the Amazon is a spiritual, cultural, and community asset. For indigenous peoples, water is a source of wisdom, a space for encountering the sacred, and a heritage that must be safeguarded for future generations.
A pastoral and human commitment
Cardinal Pedro Barreto, president of CEAMA, emphasized the importance of this meeting:
“Water is life; we are water. More than 70% of our body is water, and without it we cannot live. This Summit will mark a turning point in the care of water and in promoting awareness that this element is a blessing from God. We are water, we are life, we are hope.”
The Amazon Water Summit is intended to be a space for listening and action, where the Church, in communion with the peoples and civil society, wants to reaffirm its commitment to caring for our Common Home and defending the dignity of those who depend directly on the waters of the Amazon.
A turning point for the region
During the three days of the meeting, there will be presentations, working groups, liturgical celebrations, and symbolic acts related to water, seeking to articulate proposals and commitments that translate into political advocacy, pastoral accompaniment, and concrete actions for protection.
The Summit will not only address water from its ecological dimension, but also from its social, cultural, and spiritual implications. It is hoped that this event will mark a milestone in the defense of water as a fundamental human right and as a gift from God to all humanity.
CEAMA invites all ecclesial communities, institutions, and people of good will to accompany this process, recognizing that defending water means defending the life and hope of the Amazonian peoples and the entire planet.
