For this reason, they have started a petition to the government to ensure access to water in areas where it is lacking. The initiative was presented in Ribnica, a municipality in Lower Carniola, in the presence of Roma representatives.
While the public is focused on ecological transition and nuclear energy, Roma in many settlements are struggling to get connections to water and electricity. Many Roma children do their homework by candlelight or spend their evenings in the dark, said Amnesty International Slovenia Director Nataša Posel. She called it unacceptable that the state in Slovenia denies Roma families, who have lived in settlements that have existed for decades, access to drinking water and electricity. This, she said, condemns many Roma children to a lack of education and poverty, a particularly relevant issue on the eve of World Children’s Day.
According to government data, around a fifth of Roma settlements in Slovenia lack drinking water. Posel stressed:
“The government claims that these settlements are water self-sufficient, but in practice this means that, for example, a washing machine is connected directly to a rainwater tank and only works when it rains. This cannot be considered a systemic solution.”
Jožek Horvat Muc, president of the Union of Roma of Slovenia, highlighted that the lack of water and electricity causes serious problems for Roma families, hindering children’s education and adults’ employment. According to Horvat Muc, the state should address the issue more seriously and in a more organized way, as the resolution of such problems cannot be left to the discretion of individual politicians or mayors, neither at the local nor at the state level. He said.
“We need systematic rules, structured funding and a clear definition of responsibilities to resolve these issues.”
He also suggested that part of the problems could be solved by amending Article 20 of the Act on Municipal Financing, establishing that funds earmarked for Roma are earmarked. According to his information, municipalities will receive 9.2 million euros for this purpose next year, an amount he called “not negligible.”
Amnesty International Slovenia insists that the state is always responsible for ensuring human rights on its territory, even if it delegates some competences to municipalities. Therefore, it has started collecting signatures for a petition addressed to Prime Minister Robert Golob, calling on the government to guarantee access to water for Roma families in south-eastern Slovenia where this right is not yet respected. The petition reads:
“Water provision is a municipal responsibility, but if municipalities do not do it for their citizens, it is the state’s duty to step in and guarantee the constitutional right to water.”
