A/HRC/42/47 public toilets, despite the population of the city being around 7 million, around 5.5 m of whom stay outdoors for between 5 and 8 hours a day, and many of the 47 public toilets were wholly unusable. 24 In partnership with NGOs and corporate sponsors, the city committed to renovating 37 of the existing toilets and building 100 additional facilities. The new toilets are provided with safe drinking water, have separate male and female areas, hand-washing facilities, showers and reliable electricity connections, and are stocked with sanitary products for women.25 In designing the project, attention was paid to the needs of people on very low incomes who are frequent users of water and sanitation facilities in public spaces. 40. When seeking to ensure the availability of water and sanitation in public spaces, the precise quantitative features of provision will depend upon the circumstances on the ground, including the type of space being considered and its size, the usage of that space, in terms of the numbers of people present, the demographics of users and the reasons for their attendance, as well as the length of time people typically remain within a particular space (A/HRC/12/24, paras. 70–71). Having considered these and other pertinent factors, it is essential that States ensure the construction and maintenance of water and sanitation facilities in those spaces in line with the needs of all users and in sufficient quantities to ensure ease of access. Particularly in relation to the availability of sanitation, States must ensure the provision of toilets and related services, such as hand-washing and menstrual hygiene amenities, in sufficient numbers to guarantee that people are not required to wait for unreasonably long periods to gain access to them, or to rely on favours from local residents or commerce (ibid.). A key issue is the number of facilities required in each space, which is often dependent on how women differ from men in their use of facilities (A/HRC/33/49, para. 47). Numerous studies have highlighted the fact that women must spend around twice as much time accessing public toilets as men and must also access sanitation facilities more frequently. 26 41. In the United States, considerable efforts have been made at a legislative level towards preventing discrimination against women in access to water and sanitation in public spaces. For example, in Texas the building code of 1993 notes that the relevant ratio for new buildings must be “not less than 2:1 women’s to men’s restrooms in facilities where the public congregates”.27 Equally, in Wisconsin parity laws require the owners of a facility where the public congregate “to ensure that women have a speed of access to toilets … that equals the speed of access that men have to toilets and urinals … when the facility … is used to its maximum capacity.”28 B. Accessibility 42. States should take concerted measures to ensure and maintain physical accessibility to public water and sanitation facilities. Ensuring that water and sanitation facilities in public spaces are physically accessible requires that facilities in those places be available for use by all people at all times and that the facilities are suitably located within the public 24 25 26 27 28 See WaterAid, “Female-friendly public and community toilets: a guide for planners and decision makers” (2011); and Tariq Bin Yousuf and Khairul Islam, “Improvement of public toilet situation in Dhaka City”, Australian Water Association and World Toilet Organisation, World Toilet Summit 2017, available from www.awa.asn.au/documents/World_Toilet_Summit_Abstracts.pdf. See WaterAid, “Female-friendly public and community toilets: a guide for planners and decision makers”. See Sheila Jeffreys, “The politics of the toilet: a feminist response to the campaign to ‘degender’ a women’s space”, Women’s Studies International Forum, vol. 45 (July–August 2014); Kathryn H. Anthony and Meghan Dufresne, “Potty parity in perspective: gender and family issues in planning and designing public restrooms”, Journal of Planning Literature, vol. 21, No. 3 (February 2007); and Margaret L. Schmitt and others, “Making the case for a female-friendly toilet”, Water, vol. 10, No. 9 (September 2018). Texas Health and Safety Code, Health & Safety § 341.068. Restroom availability where the public congregates. Wisconsin State Legislature, Regulation of Industry, Buildings and Safety, ch. 101 at 101.128. 11