France is on a roll. First it passed legislation banning stores from wasting food, then news surfaced of the instigator behind that movement aspiring to take it global, and now the county’s court has just ruled that it is unconstitutional to cut anybody off from water even if they are unable to pay for it.
What this ruling means is that companies will have no choice but to continue serving water to households even if they cannot afford to pay their bill.
As InvestmentWatchBlog.com reports:
The Constitutional Council has validated Friday a total ban on water cuts introduced into French law in 2013 but contested by the Saur distributor. The Council “held that the interference with freedom of contract and freedom of enterprise resulting from the prohibition of interrupting the water supply is not manifestly disproportionate to the objective pursued by the legislature “he said in a decision published on its website.
Saur company had filed a priority question of constitutionality (QPC) after being sued for a water cut performed on one of its customers in Picardy. The Constitutional Council “rejected the objections” of water dispenser, which denounced “a disproportionate interference with freedom of contract and freedom of enterprise.”
Brottes the law of 15 April 2013, of which the implementing decree of 27 February 2014 prohibits any distributor to cut the water supply in a principal residence even if unpaid, and that throughout the year . The same law also established the principle of winter break for electricity and gas for the benefit of all consumers irrespective of income.
As water is a basic necessity for life, should access always be offered to those in need – regardless if they can pay for it ? Share your opinion in the comments section below.
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