Adalah Demands Restoration of Water to Arab Town of Daliyat al-Carmel in the North of Israel after Water Company Cuts off Supply

On 19 July 2009, Adalah sent an urgent letter to the Director of Mekorot (the National Water Company), the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of National Infrastructure and the Attorney General demanding the restoration of water to the residents of Daliyat al-Carmel (population: >13,000), an Arab town located in the north of Israel. A number of residents approached Adalah after the water supply was cut off to all the houses in the town, although the residents have continued to pay their water bills.

In November 2008, the Minister of the Interior appointed a local council for Daliyat al-Carmel after disbanding the elected council. From the local council's response to the residents of Daliyat al-Carmel it became evident that Mekorot cut the water supply from the town, because the council had not paid its debts to Mekorot.
 
This is not the first or only time that the residents of Daliyat al-Carmel have been cut off from water even though they paid their bills. In recent years, Mekorot has cut the water supply from the Daliyat al-Carmel as well as from other Arab villages such as Rameh, Abu Sinan, Majd el-Kurum and Baqa el-Gharbiya.

A recent amendment to the Water Law (Amendment No. 114 a) - 2004 provides that Mekorot can cut off the water supply from a local authority if the local authority does not pay 80% of its debt to the company. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher demanded that this amendment be voided as it is unconstitutional in that it does not distinguish between those who have paid their water bills and those who have not. Consequently, it deprives the citizen who pays his/her water bills of their right to water.

Under another amendment to the law on water and sewage companies, the local authorities indebted to Mekorot must open a separate bank account in order to pay the water bills directly to this account and thus Mekorot, will not be able to cut off the supply. Despite this amendment, Mekorot continues to cut off the water supply from the Arab villages including Daliet El-Carmel.

In the letter , Attorney Zaher also stressed that cutting off the water supply also affects other constitutional rights, including the right to life, the right to health and the right to work. For without water, a healthy life cannot be exercised, and the standard of living and possibility of work decreases. These infringements on constitutional rights lead to the violation of the constitutional right to dignity.

The letter also noted that Mekorot failed to pursue other, less drastic alternatives such as the opening of legal proceedings against the debtors, but rather resorted to the harshest measure of cutting off the water supply to all residents during the heat of summer, which is a form of collective punishment.