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Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 85
- Paragraph text
- Water contamination has a significant impact on the realization of human rights, including the human right to water, but also the rights to health, food and a healthy environment, among many others. Human rights principles and standards are relevant beyond the context of water and sanitation service delivery and need to be integrated into discussions on water and wastewater management at all levels.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 75
- Paragraph text
- The human rights framework obliges States to put in place mechanisms to hold the relevant actors accountable. They must provide for redress mechanisms in the law and address barriers that may prevent access to justice in practice, including through measures to overcome obstacles such as prohibitive costs, language requirements, requirements of representation and geographic location of institutions. Members of the legal profession must be adequately trained in human rights law, including economic, social and cultural rights, non-discrimination law, and environmental law.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 67
- Paragraph text
- Just as important as the absolute amount of resources is how those resources are targeted. The priority must be to achieve basic levels of service for everyone before moving to higher standards, in particular by targeting the most disadvantaged. Current spending patterns are not always aligned with those priorities, and often benefit those who are relatively well-off (ibid., paras. 41 and 42). Funding is disproportionately targeted towards large systems in urban areas (e.g., wastewater treatment facilities and sewerage pipelines) compared with basic services in rural areas and deprived urban areas (e.g., latrines, boreholes and hand pumps). Currently, 62 per cent of all sectoral aid goes to developing large systems, while only 16 per cent goes to basic systems. Because of the limited reach and high costs associated with sewerage systems, very few people benefit from them, and the ones who do are likely to be the better-off. In order to eliminate inequalities, financing less cost-intensive and more context-appropriate systems should be given higher priority, as should other approaches to prioritize coverage in poorer and marginalized areas.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 42
- Paragraph text
- The challenges arising from contamination call for concerted efforts to achieve sustainable wastewater management and pollution control based on human rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- The Special Rapporteur wishes to emphasize the fact that she does not call for efforts to be diverted away from ensuring access to sanitation, which must remain a priority. She has repeatedly stressed the crucial role of adequate sanitation in ensuring human health, privacy and dignity. At the same time, she considers that efforts need to go beyond ensuring access to basic sanitation, in particular in countries that have already achieved (almost) universal coverage, but lack adequate wastewater management. The imperative of wastewater management and pollution control is even more apparent for contamination stemming from large-scale agriculture and industry.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 27
- Paragraph text
- While ensuring access to sanitation facilities is a significant step that will bring huge gains in terms of privacy and dignity, the health gains will materialize fully only when human excreta are properly confined, disposed of and managed. Lessons learned from experiences in community-led total sanitation demonstrate how important it is for communities to be entirely open-defecation-free. As long as faeces are still found in the community environment, risks to health will remain (see www.communityledtotalsanitation.org).? The same holds true when wastewater ends up in the nearby or larger environment: the community, or other communities living downstream, can be negatively affected. Not dealing with emptying, disposing of and treating sludge puts at risk the benefits of increased sanitation coverage.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 25
- Paragraph text
- Estimates show that sanitation coverage would be significantly lower if sewage treatment were taken into account as an additional criterion: according to that definition, 4.1 billion people lack access to sanitation. The coverage rate may decrease even further when considering other types of sanitation facilities, such as pit latrines, and discounting of those that expose communities to harmful substances when pits are not adequately emptied and their content treated. Similarly, when water safety is added into the equation, the number of people with access to safe drinking water has to be adjusted downward, with an estimated 1.8 billion people using unsafe water.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 21
- Paragraph text
- Human rights bodies thus understand sanitation broadly to include the treatment and disposal or reuse of excreta and associated wastewater. Sanitation does not stop simply with the use of latrines or toilets, but includes the safe disposal or reuse of faeces, urine and wastewater. Such a broad understanding is warranted, as sanitation concerns not only one's own right to use a latrine or toilet, but also the rights of other people, in particular their right to health, on which there might be negative impacts.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 20
- Paragraph text
- In 2010, the human right to water and sanitation was explicitly recognized by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, and is guaranteed as a component of the human right to an adequate standard of living. The Special Rapporteur, in her capacity as an independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, defined sanitation from a human rights perspective as a system for the collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta and associated hygiene. The Special Rapporteur has stated that States must ensure without discrimination that everyone has physical and economic access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, which is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable, provides privacy and ensures dignity. She further considers that domestic wastewater, which flows from toilets, sinks and showers, should be included in the description of sanitation insofar as water regularly contains human excreta and the by-products of the associated hygiene (see A/HRC/12/24, paras. 63 and 87). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights endorsed this definition at its forty-fifth session in its statement on the right to sanitation. (E/C.12/2010/1).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 18
- Paragraph text
- Others have argued that people themselves should decide whether to prioritize wastewater management and how to allocate scarce resources. While it is certainly true that communities themselves should make decisions in a participatory manner, this line of argument overlooks the fact that apart from one's own human rights, one person's lack of wastewater management mostly affects other people's livelihoods and health. Whether or not to manage wastewater is not just a personal or community choice, but is a collective problem. In terms of participation, this issue points to the need to involve all those concerned in decision-making, i.e., communities living downstream and others affected by wastewater. On the part of the State, respect for human rights imposes an obligation to protect, which requires States to shield people from human rights abuses through the actions of non-State actors, including other individuals. The fact that one person gains access to sanitation must not be to the detriment of others through exposing them to the former person's faeces.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
Wastewater management in the realization of the rights to water and sanitation 2013, para. 16
- Paragraph text
- Large-scale contamination sometimes has visible direct impacts, but more frequently the impacts of inadequate wastewater management and water pollution are invisible and become manifest only in the long term. They affect not only the surrounding communities, but also those communities that are downstream from the source of pollution, resulting in an out-of-sight, out-of-mind phenomenon. Yet, pathogens in sewage and other contaminants cause a range of diseases, either through contamination of drinking water, through direct contact or through their entry into the food chain. Inadequate wastewater management restricts development, threatens livelihoods and increases poverty as a result of increased costs of health care as well as reduced productivity and educational opportunities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Health
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2013
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 63m
- Paragraph text
- [In line with these conclusions, the independent expert recommends the following:] States must put into place accessible, affordable, timely and effective accountability mechanisms. Judicial and other accountability mechanisms must be made available to all to strengthen accountability for the realization of the Millennium Development Goals. Human rights impact assessments must be carried out more systematically;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 63k
- Paragraph text
- [In line with these conclusions, the independent expert recommends the following:] States and other relevant actors must promote genuinely participatory processes and empower people to actively take part in decision-making processes, including on the use of development assistance, inter alia by overcoming barriers including low literacy levels, language constraints, cultural barriers and physical obstacles. To enable meaningful participation, full transparency must be ensured. All people must have full and equal access to information concerning water and sanitation and related plans, policies and programmes, including the use of development assistance;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 63j
- Paragraph text
- [In line with these conclusions, the independent expert recommends the following:] Near-universal access to water and sanitation cannot be cause for complacency and States must not overlook persistent pockets of poverty, but instead continue to focus on addressing systematic discrimination and exclusion;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 63h
- Paragraph text
- [In line with these conclusions, the independent expert recommends the following:] Data collection at the global level and human rights-based monitoring must disaggregate progress according to different grounds of discrimination. Gender and wealth quintiles must be prioritized for that purpose. In addition, a contextualized approach to disaggregation is required. States must identify groups and individuals under their jurisdiction who face discrimination and specifically monitor progress in improving their access to sanitation and water;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 63a
- Paragraph text
- [In line with these conclusions, the independent expert recommends the following:] States are encouraged to adapt, tailor and contextualize Millennium Development Goals at the national level, in a way that ensures respect for human rights, on the basis of an objective assessment of national priorities and resource constraints. States must take deliberate, concrete and targeted steps to progressively realize the rights to water and sanitation and corresponding development targets as expeditiously and effectively as possible. Ultimately, they must aim for universal access in line with human rights standards;
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 57
- Paragraph text
- The enforcement of human rights claims can have preventive as well as reactive or corrective impacts and, through a range of feedback channels, exert enduring influence on legislative reform and policymaking. Recent empirical research in Brazil, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and South Africa has found that "legalizing demand for socio-economic rights might well have averted tens of thousands of deaths in the countries studied ... and has likely enriched the lives of millions of others". Litigation of course has its limitations and risks, and we are still learning about the preconditions for effective claims in any given context. Nevertheless, the role of human rights adjudication should be accorded a more explicit and prominent place in strategies to strengthen accountability.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 55
- Paragraph text
- Under international human rights law, States are obliged to put in place mechanisms for accessible, affordable, timely and effective remedies for any breaches of economic, social or cultural rights. These requirements convey a different idea about accountability than that embodied in the Millennium Development Goals framework. The consequences for the non-realization of the Goals and the incentives for better performance are determined largely in the court of public opinion on the basis of the content of periodic reporting processes. This is not to be discounted: in countries with democratic and responsive governing institutions and a free and pluralistic media, a relatively poor scorecard - particularly when contrasted with countries with comparable per capita GDP - may provide welcome stimulus for improved performance. However, human rights standards and monitoring bodies go further by assessing compliance with specific legal obligations for the realization of human rights as well as responsibilities for violations, including with respect to discrimination, exclusion and unjustifiable retrogression.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 53
- Paragraph text
- The Millennium Development Goals help to promote accountability at national and global levels through monitoring and reporting against internationally agreed as well as nationally tailored targets. They draw upon widely available socio-economic statistics to monitor progress towards a realistic number of quantifiable targets. In this regard, they can provide a valuable complement to more traditional human rights monitoring tools and techniques, bringing human development data and quantitative assessment methods to human rights monitoring and hence helping to give a more complete picture of countries' progress - in absolute as well as comparative terms - towards the fulfilment of certain socio-economic rights.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 52
- Paragraph text
- Social protection policies can be expected to feature prominently in an intersectoral, rights-based analysis of the water and sanitation sectors. There have been strengthened calls for "social protection floors" and numerous cases of successful implementation with impressive poverty reduction impacts. While social policy priorities are of course country-specific, the "social protection floor" concept includes water and sanitation within the scope of essential services, along with a set of social transfers to provide a minimum income and livelihood security to ensure continuing access to essential services for the poorest. In practice, however, these minimum packages of affordable social protection guarantees do not frequently appear to have prioritized water or sanitation, as distinct from basic health, nutrition, education and income security objectives. The fundamental importance of water and sanitation, in their own right and also for the realization of health, food, education and other Millennium Development Goals and their corresponding human rights, establishes a strong case for increasing priority attention to water and sanitation. Such an integrated and intersectoral analysis within a broader social protection framework offers a compelling and potentially important means of addressing affordability constraints.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Poverty
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 50
- Paragraph text
- Lack of access to water and sanitation is not simply a question of scarcity of technology, financial resources and infrastructure. It is a matter of setting priorities, a function of societal power relations and a problem of poverty and deeply entrenched inequalities. In order to increase sustainable access to water and sanitation, it is essential to address these underlying causes. Rights-based analyses in the water and sanitation sectors have revealed, for example, lack of secure land tenure as a key blockage, in particular in urban slums. Target 7.D aims to achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers. The target date (five years later than the rest of the targets) and the scale of progress aimed for (around a tenth of the estimated 1 billion slum-dwellers) highlight the low ambition embodied in this target. The indicators used as a proxy to measure progress towards the target do not capture security of tenure, which would be crucial to improve living conditions and is one of the main components of the right to housing. If these underlying issues were addressed and the target on slums were set higher, it would contribute significantly to making progress towards universal access to water and sanitation.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 49
- Paragraph text
- Among the defining attributes of human rights is their indivisible, interrelated and interdependent nature. The human rights to water and sanitation are intimately linked to the rights to health, housing, education and political participation, among others (E/C.12/2002/11, para. 3, and A/HRC/12/24), as well as the right to life and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in extreme cases.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Health
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 47
- Paragraph text
- There are many well-known barriers to institutionalizing participatory practices, particularly insofar as the poorest and most excluded individuals and communities are concerned. Formal "democratic" guarantees and periodic free elections do not of themselves prevent the capture of governing institutions and decision-making processes by elite groups. Budgetary and programme delivery deadlines, electoral promises and disbursement incentives often crowd out meaningful participation requirements in practice. Analysis of the political, economic, cultural and social causes of exclusion is required as part of any serious effort to promote genuinely participatory processes, including a focus on literacy levels, language constraints, cultural barriers and physical obstacles.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Poverty
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 46
- Paragraph text
- In order to give full meaning and practical expression to "participation," it is vital for States to transcend ad hoc and project-level participatory processes, and seek to encourage a more fundamental and sustainable culture of participation and transparency. Active, free and meaningful participation should be internalized within democratic institutions and political culture. Human rights are, of course, ends in themselves; however, studies have also shown the vital importance of transparency and freedom of information in reducing corruption in the delivery of basic services.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Civil & Political Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 45
- Paragraph text
- A defining attribute of the human rights framework is its potential to empower people, to challenge existing inequities and to transform power relations to bring about real and sustainable changes, particularly for those most marginalized, with strengthened accountability. Human rights standards compel the participatory formulation of public policies and development plans and the institutionalization of democratic processes. All people have the right to participate in decision-making processes that may affect their rights, and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights affirms in its General Comment No. 15 that all people should be given full and equal access to information concerning water, sanitation and the environment (E/C.12/2002/11, paras. 12 (4), 48 and 55).
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Social & Cultural Rights
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 44
- Paragraph text
- The lack of adequate participation has been a troubling feature of many national poverty reduction planning processes, whether based on the Millennium Development Goals or not. Participation has sometimes been reduced to the involvement of user groups in delivery of water and sanitation, or has been dominated by a few well-established non-governmental organizations. A reductionist, tokenistic and technocratic understanding of participation might lighten the State's load in the short run, but will rarely, if ever, be sufficient to genuinely empower people in connection with the decision-making processes that affect their lives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Governance & Rule of Law
- Poverty
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- N.A.
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 31
- Paragraph text
- Fifthly and finally, services must be affordable. Access to water and sanitation must not compromise the ability to pay for other essential needs guaranteed by human rights such as food, housing and health care. While the Millennium Declaration specifically mentioned reducing by half the proportion of people unable to reach or afford safe water (General Assembly resolution 55/2, para. 19), the notion of affordability was omitted from Goal 7. This suggests that, politically, States saw the significance of affordability for ensuring actual access to services, but could not undertake to monitor it because of the lack of data. Developing such data sets is crucial to monitor affordability levels and progress in that regard. The affordability criterion needs to be revived and prioritized in national Millennium Development Goal monitoring activities and future global initiatives.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Economic Rights
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 30
- Paragraph text
- Considerations of sanitation, accessibility and physical security when accessing facilities are addressed implicitly insofar as the Millennium Development Goal indicator excludes shared public toilets. Construction and maintenance are specifically contemplated, but apart from that, access is not further specified. Moreover, access must be ensured in a sustainable manner, which is provided for in the target but not necessarily captured by the indicators. People must not only "gain access" momentarily towards the target date, but beyond, which requires, inter alia, providing for the management and financing of facilities.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Gender
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 29
- Paragraph text
- Furthermore, regular supply is essential for continuous accessibility. This is not considered within the indicators, meaning that the impact of prolonged rationing or the drying up of wells during the hot season will not be picked up. To meet human rights standards with regard to accessibility, water supply must be predictable and must enable users to meet all needs over the day without compromising water quality.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Environment
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph
The MDGs and the human rights to water and sanitation 2010, para. 28
- Paragraph text
- Fourthly, water and sanitation services must be accessible to everyone in the household or its vicinity on a continuous basis. Physical security must not be threatened when accessing facilities. Again, the Millennium Development Goals indicator on water is used as a proxy, on the assumption that "improved" sources are likely to be within the dwelling or a convenient distance from it. Accessibility could be measured more explicitly by using the time a round trip, including waiting time, takes. This could also serve as an indirect measurement of the amount of water people collect, as the distance to the water source has an impact on the quantity that can be collected. In fact, this is an indicator available from the surveys used by the Joint Monitoring Programme and has been reported on sporadically by the Joint Monitoring Programme as an additional criterion. The independent expert considers that this should be done systematically, including examination of accessibility in schools, workplaces and other spheres of life.
- Body
- Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation
- Document type
- Special Procedures' report
- Topic(s)
- Equality & Inclusion
- Water & Sanitation
- Person(s) affected
- All
- Year
- 2010
Paragraph