PRESS RELEASE
Data: 24.07.2023
The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has sued the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Environment for the lack of implementing rules for Government Ordinance No 7/2023, which regulates the quality of water for human consumption.
Although this ordinance entered into force on 28 January 2023, the implementing rules, which were due to be issued by 27 April 2023, have not yet been drawn up. In their absence, a climate of uncertainty is being created, with the potential to compromise public health. This situation of legal uncertainty has a significant impact on the population. Without implementing rules, citizens do not have a clear guarantee of how the quality of the water they consume is ensured, which causes legitimate concern, as there are no clear implementing rules setting out exactly how the water quality standard will be controlled and monitored. In this context, the FACIAS court action is the way to force the authorities to speed up the issuing of implementing rules. Their role is to protect the fundamental right of every citizen to health protection, guaranteed by the Romanian Constitution.
Continuous State negligence
The lack of enforcement rules is a chronic problem of the Romanian state, a situation that puts its citizens in a vulnerable position. FACIAS has repeatedly drawn attention to this problem in various areas of public interest. In this case, it is in the vital area of drinking water quality, where a lack of enforcement can have serious consequences for people's health. This negligence on the part of the authorities, who issue laws without ensuring that they can be properly enforced, is unacceptable. Laws and ordinances remain ineffective without implementing rules detailing how they are to be implemented. This inertia on the part of the Romanian state in issuing implementing rules only creates confusion, uncertainty and allows abuses to be perpetrated on citizens.
FACIAS is once again drawing attention to this situation and hopes to bring about the change needed to make the authorities accountable. It is imperative that the Romanian state respects its own rules and assumes responsibility for the public good, especially in areas as essential as the quality of water for human consumption.
The Foundation For The Defense Of Citizens Against State Abuses (FACIAS) has been seeking since 2008 to ensure transparency in the functioning of state institutions as a principle of democracy and the rule of law and defends the rights of Romanian citizens.
We are monitoring the work of state institutions and informing the public about it, in order to raise citizens' awareness of their rights and the possibility for them to take part in the activities of public institutions, directly or through non-governmental organisations.
FACIAS PRESS OFFICE