Mekorot water company to cut Rahat off

Company says Bedouin town has accumulated debt of $400,000; MK El-Sana: Government at fault
Ilana Curiel

Israel's national water company announced Tuesday that it would be disconnecting the water in the Bedouin community of Rahat due to an accumulated debt of about $400,000 owed by the town's municipality.

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The 46,281 residents of the town, located in Israel's desert region, will remain without water for a few hours a day until the municipality settles its debts with Mekorot.

Heads of the Bedouin councils held a meeting with Shlomo Buchbut, chairman of the Union of Local Authorities, in order to discuss their financial difficulties.

Rahat Mayor Faiz Abu-Sabihan said a plan had been formed in order to pull the municipality from its deficit, which currently stands at around $7.8 million. However he said the plan had not yet been approved.

"Our accounts have been seized," the mayor told Ynet. "And the employees are not being paid. We've been chosen to provide a service I cannot provide." He said the municipality would strike until the plan was approved.

An official with the Interior Ministry's southern district said the plan had been approved, but that the ministry still had to cooperate with the Treasury in order to allot funds towards its implementation.

Meanwhile, the data presented by the municipality at the meeting was disheartening. While Rahat exacts municipality taxes from just 30% of its population, 35% receive income support and 26% are eligible for unemployment payment. The city's rate of unemployment is a whopping 20%, and the average age of its residents is 13.5.

MK Talab El-Sana (United Arab List-Ta'al), who was present at the meeting, complained that Rahat's population was the poorest in the state. "This poverty was not preordained, but the result of a systematic government policy which does not take care to develop trade and industry," he said.

Others complained of discrimination. "The budget of the Arab municipalities compared to the Jewish municipalities is very low," said Khaled El-Sana, head of the Lakiya local council. "The budget of a Jewish community center is worth about the same as that of a whole Arab municipality."

Mekorot stated in response that the company had sent numerous warnings to Rahat, all of which were ignored, and that the water company had not received payment for the months of April, June, and July.

"Their debt is huge for such a small town. We had no choice but to disconnect the water when all our negotiations with them failed," the company's statement said.