A/HRC/6/3 page 15 uses. Accordingly, a water source with capacity to provide sufficient, safe and regular water should normally be within less than 1,000 metres of the household and collection time should not exceed 30 minutes in order for around 20 litres a day of water to be collected.47 3. Economic access - affordability 27. Considering safe drinking water and sanitation from a human rights perspective highlights the importance of economic access or affordability. The Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) underlines that cost-recovery objectives should not become a barrier to access to safe drinking water by poor people.48 Agenda 21 underlines that beyond the provision of safe drinking water for the satisfaction of basic needs, water users should be charged appropriately.49 Recommendation 14 (2001) of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to member states on the European Charter on Water Resources states that “without prejudice to the right to water to meet basic needs, the supply of water shall be subject to payment in order to cover financial costs associated with the production and utilisation of water resources”.50 28. Affordability requires that direct and indirect costs related to water and sanitation should not prevent a person from accessing safe drinking water and should not compromise his or her ability to enjoy other rights, such as the right to food, housing, health and education. These costs include both connection and delivery costs. The human rights framework does not imply, therefore, a right to free water and sanitation but highlights the fact that nobody should be deprived of access because of an inability to pay. It therefore contemplates the possibility that safe drinking water and sanitation should be provided for free in certain circumstances but does not set this as a rule. Consequently, the affordability requirement is not incompatible with the principle of cost recovery for water and sanitation services, which is also recognized in several international declarations. However, it defines limits to cost recovery and highlights the fact that it should not become a barrier to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, notably by the poor.51 47 G. Howard and J. Bartram, Domestic Water Quantity, Service Level and Health, World Health Organization, 2003, pp. 22-26. The UNICEF and WHO Joint Monitoring Programme on Water Supply and Sanitation also highlighted the fact that research in rural areas found that individuals satisfy their basic needs for water if the source can be reached in a round trip of 30 minutes or less. 48 Para. 26 (b). 49 Agenda 21, United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992, chap. 18, para. 8. 50 Recommendation Rec (2001) 14, para. 19, available at http://www.coe.int/t/cm/ adoptedTexts_en.asp#P47_2021. 51 See Salman M.A. Salman and Sioban McInerey-Lankford, The Human Right to Water: Legal and Policy Dimensions, The World Bank (Law, Justice and Development series), pp. 70-72.

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