A/HRC/RES/45/8 Recalling that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers the issue of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and other water-related Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 6, on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, which comprises important targets relating to the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, as well as health and hygiene, and acknowledges the need for an integrated approach to Goal 6 that reflects the interlinkages between achieving universal and equitable access to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene, while also striving to improve the quality and safety of water, reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity and ensure special attention to the needs and rights of women and girls, Recalling also that 10 years after the recognition of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation and five years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, integrated approaches that support the practical realization of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, particularly by tackling inequalities and ensuring special attention to the needs and rights of all women and girls, are more pertinent than ever before, also in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Recognizing the need to pursue these integrated approaches to the implementation of Goal 6 and other water-related Sustainable Development Goals that reflect the interlinkages between achieving universal and equitable access to safe drinking water, sanitation and personal hygiene, in particular for women and girls, to enable menstrual hygiene management in a dignified and healthy way, while also striving to improve the quality and safety of water and to reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity, Recalling General Assembly resolution 71/222 of 21 December 2016, by which the Assembly proclaimed the period from 2018 to 2028 the International Decade for Action, “Water for Sustainable Development”, Noting the work of the High-level Panel on Water, jointly convened by the United Nations and the World Bank Group, in order to champion a comprehensive, inclusive and collaborative way of developing and managing water resources and improving water and sanitation-related services in line with Sustainable Development Goal 6, and taking note of its outcome document of 14 March 2018, Noting also the relevant commitments and initiatives promoting the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation made at recent regional and subregional conferences and meetings, Welcoming the work of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund in the 2019 update published by their Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, Welcoming also the fact that, according to a report published in 2019 by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene, 1.6 billion people gained access to safe drinking water between 2000 and 2017 and that an estimated 71 per cent of the global population uses a safely managed drinking water service system, while being deeply concerned, however, that 12 per cent of the global population still lacks even a basic drinking water system, Deeply concerned that 785 million people lack a basic water service, 2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water that is available when needed and free from contamination in their homes, 4.2 billion people lack access to a safely managed sanitation service and 673 million people still practise open defecation, Deeply alarmed about the fact that, according to The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2020, scarcity of water could displace an estimated 700 million people by 2030, Welcoming the fact that the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene has established an extensive global database and has been instrumental in developing global norms by which to benchmark progress, while taking into consideration the fact that official figures do not always capture all the dimensions of the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation, 2