The human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation A/RES/72/178 Welcoming the work of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in the 2017 update published by their Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, 11 Welcoming also the fact that, according to the Joint Monitoring Programme report, an estimated 71 per cent of the global population uses a safely managed drinking water service system, while being deeply concerned, however, that 12 per cent of the global population still lacks even a basic drinking water service, Deeply concerned that 4.5 billion people lack a safely managed sanitation service, 2.3 billion people still lack even a basic sanitation service and 892 million people worldwide still practise open defecation, which is one of the clearest manifestations of poverty and extreme poverty, Deeply concerned also about the lack of access to adequate water and sanitation services and its dramatic consequences for the overall health situation in humanitarian crises, including in times of conflict and natural disaster, acknowledging that people living in countries affected by conflict, violence and instability are four times as likely to lack basic drinking water and twice as likely to lack basic sanitation as people living in unaffected countries, Deeply concerned further that women and girls often face, especially in humanitarian crises, including in times of conflict or natural disaster, particular barriers in accessing water and sanitation and that they shoulder the main burden of collecting household water in many parts of the world, restricting their time for other activities, such as education and leisure, or for earning a livelihood, Deeply concerned that the lack of access to adequate water and sanitation services, including for menstrual hygiene management, especially in schools, contributes to reinforcing the widespread stigma associated with menstruation, negatively affecting gender equality and women’s and girls’ enjoyment of human rights, including the right to education and the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Deeply concerned also that women and girls are particularly at risk and exposed to attacks, sexual and gender-based violence, harassment and other threats to their safety while collecting household water and when accessing sanitation facilities outside their homes or practising open defecation, Deeply alarmed that water, sanitation and hygiene-related diseases hit children the hardest and that, in humanitarian crises, including in times of conflict or natural disaster, children suffer the most from interruptions in water and sanitation services, and underscoring that progress on reducing child mortality, morbidity and stunting is linked to children’s and women’s access to safe drinking water and sanitation, Welcoming the fact that the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation has established an extensive global database and has been instrumental in developing global norms to benchmark progress, while taking into consideration the fact that official figures very often do not fully capture all the dimensions of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, Deeply concerned that non-existent or inadequate sanitation facilities and serious deficiencies in water management and wastewater treatme nt can negatively affect water provision and sustainable access to safe drinking water and that, according to the United Nations World Water Development Report 2017, over __________________ 11 17-22995 World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund, Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene: 2017 updates and SDG baselines (Geneva, 2017). 3/6