Adalah Petitions the Supreme Court Demanding Water be Supplied to Unrecognized Villages in the Negev

Today, Adalah filed a petition on behalf of the residents of seven Arab unrecognized villages in the Negev, the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages in the Negev, the Association of 40, the Galilee Society, Physicians for Human Rights, and on Adalah’s own behalf against the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Water Commissioner, the Israeli Water Company, the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection, and the Ministry of the Interior. The petition demands that these villages be supplied with water for drinking and domestic uses.  The petition charges that the above-mentioned government entities are maintaining a policy of denying clean and accessible water to these villages.  There are tens of unrecognized Arab villages throughout the country including 65,000 residents in the Negev.  These villages are afforded no official status.  They are excluded from government maps, they have neither local councils, nor belong to other local governing bodies, and they receive little to no government services such as electricity, water, telephone lines, or health facilities.

The petitioners claim that the denial of clean and accessible water to the unrecognized villages is a violation of the residents’ right to water, a basic condition for human existence. Without a regular supply of accessible clean water, the health of those living in the unrecognized villages are endangered, especially those of infants, children and women.  The petitioners claim that the lack of clean accessible water is one of the main reasons for the low standard of living of the residents of these villages as the lack of water puts them below the minimum standard for human existence. 

Residents of the unrecognized villages are forced to bring water from a “water point” on the Israeli Water Company’s main water pipeline.  These water points are located a great distance from the villages.  In El Ghara, a village of 1,700 residents, there is one water point which is 5 ½ km away from the village. Although residents of some villages have improvised by connecting the water point to their village via a rubber hose, all residents are severely impacted by the unhygienic transfer and storage of water from these points.  In villages in which hoses are not used, residents must carry water in containers for long distances.  The water is then stored for days in unhygienic containers or tankers.  Despite many appeals to different authorities to supply accessible clean water to the unrecognized villages, the government has done nothing to solve this problem. 

The petition includes affidavits of those living in the unrecognized villages as well expert opinions and surveys on the quantity and quality of water in the villages.  One of the petitioners, Ms. Lutfiyya Abu-Khamad from Drijat village is quoted in the petition as stating: “The situation of lack of water and the fear that always accompanies me that the water will run out makes my life very hard.  The hardship is considerable because of the permanent contradiction between my responsibility as a mother toward my children and their health, which requires that I make sure that they are careful to be clean, which of course requires a lot of water, on one hand; and knowing that we don’t have enough water, and that it is my obligation to make sure that the children will not use too much of the water.  The result is that my suffering due to the lack of water is doubled and doubled again because of the grief that I have as a mother seeing my children suffer.” 

In the petition, Adalah argues that the Water Law and the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Freedom, which includes the right to life and dignity, require that the Israeli authorities supply water to those living in the unrecognized villages and to connect the villages to the Israeli water network.  Further, the respondents are forbidden from discriminating between different sectors of the population in fulfilling their legal obligations. By refusing to connect the petitioners’ villages, they violate the residents’ right to equality, as the petitioners’ right to water should be equal to any other citizen’s right to water. 

The petition also includes comparative data on water consumption. The petitioners maintain that water, like any other public good, should be divided in an equal, fair and non-arbitrary manner.

Per Capita Water Consumption in the Negev Region (1994) 
Source: 1995 Ministry of Health Study

*Permanent Bedouin Towns 
**Jewish Towns

Water Consumption in Jewish and Non-Jewish Towns Throughout Israel

(For All Uses) (1998) 
Source: Statistical Yearbook, CBS 2000, p.15.6