A/HRC/45/10/Add.3 RECOMMENDATION 4: Conduct a comprehensive assessment of the institutional arrangements in the water and sanitation sector, with a view to establishing a unified national policy and a governmental body tasked to coordinate the water and sanitation policy of the central Government, together with focal points in each ministry. That coordination should be approached through the human rights framework and should ensure that the responsible bodies are held accountable (A/HRC/39/55/Add.2, para. 82 (c)(i)). RECOMMENDATION 5: Improve dialogue and exchange of information between all levels of government in relation to access to water and sanitation, in accordance with a clearly established human rights framework (A/HRC/39/55/Add.2, para. 82(c)(ii)). RECOMMENDATION 6: Establish clearly defined roles and responsibilities of governmental institutions related to water and sanitation in order to address the scattered responsibilities that prevent individuals from effectively holding the Government accountable for its human rights obligations (A/HRC/39/55/Add.2, para. 82(c)(iii)). 19. At the time of the visit, responsibility for implementing the human rights to water and sanitation was scattered among numerous governmental bodies and institutions, preventing individuals from effectively holding the Government accountable for its human rights obligations (A/HRC/39/55/Add.2, para. 23). Particularly, following the dissolution of the National Water Authority in 2012, several ministries were tasked with fragmented aspects of providing drinking water and sanitation services to the population. Each ministry had its own role in the water and sanitation policy, but there was no unified national policy, nor a body in the central Government tasked with ensuring proper and effective coordination. The Special Rapporteur pointed out that the drinking water and sanitation agenda was diluted in the agenda of water resources management. This lack of a clear institutional framework and a centralized strategy shifted the burden of responsibility to local governments, which are responsible for the actual provision of services to the local population. The Special Rapporteur also emphasized that there is no nationally designated agency with a clear mandate to plan and implement interventions in the area of sanitation (A/HRC/39/55/Add.2, para. 24). 20. At the forty-second session of the Human Rights Council in September 2018, the Government explained that the Ministry of Environment and Tourism established a Working Group to review the laws and regulations and to examine the possibility establishing a government administrative body for water issues. Subsequently, in January 2020, the Law on Water was amended to provide the legal basis for the establishment of a State Water Agency. 11 The responsibilities of the State Water Agency include the responsibility “to determine, process, enforce and monitor the amount of available water resources for each use purpose in the basins” (Article 1614.3. of the Law on Water). The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that the availability element of the human rights to water and sanitation includes prioritizing water for drinking and domestic usage in water allocation. The State Water Agency will also be responsible for developing “methodologies and instructions for conducting research in the field of ecological and economic assessment of water, setting water prices and tariffs, and estimating the damage caused to water resources” (Article 16.4.7 of the Law on Water). This touches upon some normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation, namely, affordability and quality; however, it is unclear whether the execution of the State Water Agency’s responsibility is exclusively associated to water resources management or to water and sanitation services, leaving a gap, particularly to which extent it will be guided by the human rights framework. While the Special Rapporteur notes the Government’s effort to address some elements of the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation, he adds that the elements of accessibility and 11 Parliament of Mongolia, “On amendments to the law on water”, January 2020, available from http://forum.parliament.mn/files/89403. 7