WILLEMSTAD - The human rights organization Hende-i-Medio-Ambiente, HiMA is taking the government of Curaçao to court for access to clean water. The case will be treated today in Willemstad. Hundreds of families in Curaçao are cut off from the water due to lack of money or are never even connected to the water network. several human rights organizations in the Netherlands and on Curaçao state this. They are therefore concerned about the households on the island that do not have access to clean water.
Hende-i-Medio-Ambiente, HiMA, during the delivery of food packages in 2020 and afterwards, found among the most vulnerable people in the area east of Curaçao that more than fifty households in this area alone do not have access to clean water and therefore lack adequate sanitary facilities.
No answer
HiMA has sounded the alarm about this directly with the President of the Parliament of Curaçao, who has forwarded a letter addressed to her to the Ministry of Social Development (SOAW) without any response.
Attention has also been drawn to the media, but unfortunately it has not led to the necessary action to date. Plaintiff HiMA has established that elderly people who are still able to do so, and quite a few single people and families with children, walk along the road with Jerry cans or loose bottles to fetch water from relatives or neighbors. They have observed on site several times that in many households there is not even an Aqualectra (water) pipe to be found.
Ombudsman
In 2012 and in 2020, eight years later, the ombudsman of Curaçao has already pointed out the lack of access to clean drinking water for vulnerable citizens in Curaçao, together with the ombudsman of Sint Maarten and the National Ombudsman in the Netherlands.
HiMA has approached the Dutch Jurists Committee for Human Rights, because of the procedure in the Netherlands about the right to water for children. The same arguments play a role in both proceedings and the Country of Curaçao invokes the judgment in the first instance of the District Court of The Hague. Defense for Children Netherlands and the Dutch Jurists Committee for Human Rights have appealed against that ruling.
Amicus curiae
On behalf of and with Defense for Children Netherlands and the Dutch Jurists Committee for Human Rights, as an amicus curiae, a special project of the lawyers' association has written a letter to the Court of First Instance in Curaçao. In the letter, the organizations discuss what the right to water entails for children and why they should not be cut off from the water.
An amicus curiae is a person or organization that is not a party to a lawsuit, but that may assist a court by offering information, expertise or insight related to the issue in the case.
In this way, these organizations hope to contribute to the protection of children's rights in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They very much hope that the Court of First Instance will consider this amicus letter and that it will contribute to the present proceedings.
Argument
HiMA is arguing in the court case that the government of Curaçao is not making sufficient efforts to guarantee access to clean water for socially disadvantaged groups of people in Curaçao.
In addition, Curaçao must increase its efforts to ensure that everyone who lives in Curaçao clean water in his or her living situation.
As far as HiMA is concerned, the government should submit a concrete plan of action to the organization within two months after the judgment, which describes which efforts will be made, where, and within which period. In it, the organization also wants to impose a penalty of 1000 guilders for each day that Curaçao remains in default.