Volume 88 | Issue 8 | obiter-dicta.ca
The Definitive Source for Osgoode News since 1928
Monday, January 5, 2015
thirsty for justice
the privilege to pour
ê In what a group of UN experts call a violation of human rights, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department has shut off thousands of people’s water after they failed to pay
their bills. Image credit: Huffington Post
sophie chaisson › contributor
I
n september, a Detroit judge ruled that the
city can continue to turn off the taps of residents who cannot afford to pay their water
bills. Judge Steven Rhodes, who is responsible for overseeing Detroit’s bankruptcy, opined that
although “water is a necessary ingredient to sustaining life” there is no “enforceable right” to free
water.
Judge Rhodes’s ruling was in response to a lawsuit, Lyda v City of Detroit, filed on behalf of lowincome residents who cannot keep up with their
bills amid Detroit’s economic downturn. It is estimated that at least 27,000 residents have had their
taps turned off by the city this year.
The situation in Detroit raises important questions concerning the right to clean drinking water.
As water becomes an increasingly coveted global
commodity, it is necessary to consider whether
access to clean water is solely the responsibility of
municipal service providers, which provide water in
exchange for a fee, or whether access should be considered a basic human right under international law.
In June, United Nations Special Rapporteurs
Catarina de Albuquerque and Leilani Farha wrote to
the city of Detroit advising that the “disconnection
of water services because of failure to pay due to lack
of means constitutes a violation of the human right
to water and other international human rights.”
De Albuquerque and Farha visited Detroit in late
October to conduct an informal fact-finding mission
in the city. They found that the water shut-offs were
happening on an “unprecedented scale” and that
they were having a severe disparate impact on “the
» see DETROIT WATER, page 11
In this Issue ...
EDITORIAL
Travel Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
NEWS
Detroit Water Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . COVER
Student Caucus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
arts & culture
Jurisfoodence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
sports
Toronto Raptors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9