A/HRC/6/3 page 9 sanitation while 1.6 million deaths per year can be attributed to the same causes.21 Lack of access to water and sanitation has also been addressed by the Human Rights Committee and the Committee against Torture.22 8. The nexus between access to water and sanitation and the enjoyment of the right to an adequate standard of living has been stressed by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in its general comment No. 15 (2002) on the right to water, in which it underlined that water constitutes a fundamental element for securing an adequate standard of living. The strong link with the right to health has also been highlighted by various United Nations treaty bodies, special procedures and regional mechanisms and is acknowledged in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The CESCR identified access to safe drinking water and sanitation as determinants of the right to health, giving rise to specific obligations to ensure an adequate supply of safe and potable water and adequate sanitation. 9. Access to safe drinking water also constitutes an important element for the enjoyment of the right to food. In extending the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, the Commission on Human Rights specifically requested him to “pay attention to the issue of drinking water, taking into account the interdependence of this issue and the right to food”.23 The Special Rapporteur on the right to food noted, in that respect, that clean drinking water is an essential part of healthy nutrition.24 10. In clarifying the scope and content of the right to adequate housing, CESCR underlined that access to safe drinking water and sanitation represents a fundamental element for the enjoyment of this right.25 States’ obligations under the right to education also entail specific 21 Health, dignity, and development: what will it take?, UN Millennium Project Task Force on Water and Sanitation, 2005. 22 Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee: Honduras, 2006 (CCPR/C/HND/CO/1, para. 15); Report of the Committee against Torture (A/56/44 (SUPP), paras. 181 and 183). 23 Commission on Human Rights resolution 2001/25, para. 9. 24 See A/56/210, paras. 58-71 and E/CN.4/2003/54, paras. 36-51. See also article 15 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, where access to safe drinking water is an element of the right to nutritious and adequate food. 25 CESCR general comment No. 4 (1991) on the right to adequate housing (art. 11 (1) of the Covenant), para. 8.