Adalah Demands Reduction of Water Prices and Access to Water for Arab Bedouin
(Beer el-Sabe, Israel) Adalah recently sent two letters to the Israeli authorities demanding the reduction of water prices and access to water for Arab Bedouin citizens of Israel living in the Naqab (Negev) desert.
In one letter, Adalah demanded that the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Water Authority reduce the rates paid for drinking and agricultural water by residents of six unrecognized Arab Bedouin villages in the Naqab (Negev). Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher argued in the letter sent on 6 May 2012, that these residents must transport water via truck and store it in tanks near their homes and therefore should not pay the full price of water, which includes transportation and storage. Residents of Wadi al-Naam bring water from a source 1.2 kilometers away; Al-Karin's water source is one kilometer away; and Al-Atrash uses a source two kilometers away. In many cases, water quality is affected by this transport in rusty tankers and negatively impacts the residents' health.
Adalah submitted the letter on behalf of six residents of unrecognized villages. Each resident represents several hundred others who pay high bills for water. According to Attorney Zaher, the residents must pay rates that include the water company's cost for transportation, storing the water, cleaning the water, and other services. Most of these additional costs should not apply to them because they do not receive water through the national network. "Transportation of the water to their homes, and maintenance costs, are already paid for by the residents themselves," the letter explains. Although the Arab Bedouin residents of these villages go to extenuating circumstances not born by anyone else in the country, they pay the same rate for water. They also do not pay a lower rate for agricultural water than drinking water, as other farmers do.
In another letter to the head of the Abu Basma Regional Council (RC), Adalah demanded that the RC take immediate action to create infrastructure for the newly recognized village of Kohli, which currently lacks water access to its homes. Adalah Attorney Aram Mahameed argued in the letter that while there is an approved plan to bring water to homes, it has not been executed. Many residents are unable to use the water connection point in the village because of its distance from their homes. Instead, Kohli residents obtain water by stretching a plastic tube that they provide and maintain themselves to their properties. These surface-laid tubes are expensive, difficult to maintain, and are often damaged. The water flows through them at high pressure, and the resident himself is responsible for repairing damages.
Attorney Mahameed noted that in 2011 the Supreme Court declared water to be a constitutional right. (See C.A. (Civil Appeal) 9535/06, Abdullah Abu Musa'ed, et al. v. The Water Commissioner and the Israel Lands Administration (decision delivered 5 June 2011)) Local authorities are responsible for providing basic services such as regular water supply to residents. The Abu Basma Regional Council must to provide suitable water supply infrastructure to the village.
