A/HRC/43/45/Add.2 roads leading from the mine with a view to addressing dust-related issues, many challenges remain. 60. Oyu Tolgoi is water-intensive, even if it allegedly recycles more than 80 per cent of the water used. While the Independent Expert acknowledges the mine’s commitment to saving water, the reality is that mining relies on water usage, and this resource is of specific importance for communities living in deserts. Past, current and future impacts on local communities must therefore be taken very seriously. 61. Over recent years, herders, local communities and the local government in Khanbogd have expressed their deep concerns about how wells have been gradually drying up since Oyu Tolgoi started its operations. For nomadic communities, access to water in the Gobi desert is what separates life from death and the base of their livelihood. Megaprojects can have a range of impacts on the human right to water in terms of availability, accessibility and quality. Megaprojects can have a range of impacts on the human right to water in terms of availability, accessibility and quality. Other rights can also be affected, such as the right to adequate housing and the right to health.69 62. As a mitigation measure, Oyu Tolgoi has put in place a programme to help herders to pump water and drill new wells. However, this solution has come with complications.70 First, it has allegedly not left the aquifers untouched, and there is great concern that flaws in the design of the pump have contributed to the shallow aquifer leaking into the deeper one, leaving users of the traditional wells with little water to pump.71 Second, herders need to have access to and use energy for water-pumping machines, whereas previous wells were easily accessible and could be operated at no cost. Third, the increasing difficulties in obtaining access to water is altering the way in which herders and their animals move around, as many of the millennia-old waterholes no longer exist, meaning that ancestral nomadic practices are being changed. 63. The exploitation of the underground mine, the largest phase of the project, is yet to come, and the Independent Expert urges the Government, Oyu Tolgoi and investors to conduct a multidimensional impact assessment with human rights, environmental, health and social components. This assessment should also include a thorough examination of the underground mining operations in both hydrologic and geohydrologic terms. Such an exercise should ensure that potential adverse impacts on human rights and other areas are prevented, while providing for mitigation and remedy for those potentially affected.72 64. Particular attention should be paid to the potential impacts on specific groups and communities, including herders. The impact assessment, including a detailed and independent hydrologic study and its conclusions, should be easily accessible online both in English and Mongol. The responsibility of the lenders should also be highlighted in this regard. 73 The parties’ efforts to set up a local participatory water-monitoring programme should be underlined and the Independent Expert would like to encourage them to take further steps to ensure that data are collected regularly from all sides in order to gather further evidence on the impact of the mining operations on water. The findings should be made public on a regular basis and should be easily available. Past reports on water resources that have not been disclosed to date should also be made publicly available. 65. In parallel, the Independent Expert also recommends that the Government establish a permanent multi-stakeholder platform to channel discussions between mining corporations operating in the country and potentially affected communities. Mining, environmental and human rights authorities, along with corporations and those affected, should be part of these discussions. 69 70 71 72 73 12 See A/74/197 and A/HRC/39/55/Add.2. See Tripartite Council, Multidisciplinary Team and Independent Expert Panel Joint Fact-finding. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment no. 15 (2002) on the right to water, para. 23. This assessment should take into account the recommendations in the reports of the Multidisciplinary Team and Independent Expert Panel. See A/74/197, para. 69.