A/HRC/42/47/Add.6 Programme and the Stockholm International Water Institute, executed under the Energy and Environment Programme (EEP) of the United Nations Development Programme from 2013 to 2016 in collaboration with a network of stakeholders. 12 However, whilst the project has led to the development of a number of draft guidelines and reports concerning water and sanitation in Tajikistan, including regulation of such, no concerted efforts to implement an effective, independent regulatory system are yet discernible. 33. In light of the lack of clear information regarding regulatory reform that has been received by the Special Rapporteur from the Government, or which is otherwise evident from other sources, he wishes to reiterate the importance of the establishment of an independent regulator which has competence to monitor the compliance of water and sanitation service providers with the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation. The Special Rapporteur notes that the reform process must ensure that the regulatory frameworks implemented are able to monitor providers from all sectors, including the private sector. LIMITED PROGRESS: The Special Rapporteur makes clear that independent regulation is crucial to ensuring the rights to water and sanitation are respected, protected and fulfilled in accordance with Tajikistan’s human rights obligations. Accordingly, he restates his recommendation. IV. The human rights to water and sanitation 34. Water and sanitation services must be accessible to everyone, on the premises of households, health and educational institutions, public institutions and places, and workplaces. The human right to safe drinking water entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have access to sufficient, safe, acceptable, physically accessible and affordable water for personal and domestic use, and that the human right to sanitation entitles everyone, without discrimination, to have physical and affordable access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, that is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable and that provides privacy and ensures dignity, while reaffirming that both rights are components of the right to an adequate standard of living. A. Recommendation on latrine construction and sludge management RECOMMENDATION 7: “Develop guidance and review financial support regarding latrine construction and sludge management to ensure that toilets are hygienic to use and to maintain and that waste matter is safely contained, transported, treated and disposed of or recycled.” (A/HRC/33/49/Add.2, para. 59(d)) 35. A key concern identified by the Special Rapporteur during his visit was the worrying absence of existing or functioning waste management processes present, particularly in rural areas, where people discharged their own waste into water bodies, or into the soil. Even in the capital, Dushanbe, however, a lack of investment in waste management facilities has reduced the effectiveness of these facilities. Furthermore, he observed a lack of support for communities in constructing the pit latrines used by 90 per cent of the rural population, meaning these were sometimes of poor quality and unhygienic. This reality poses a great potential impact to the enjoyment of the rights to water and sanitation, as well as other closely related rights, such as the right to health (A/HRC/33/49/Add.2, para. 24). 12 Parliament of the Republic of Tajikistan, State Unitary Enterprise ‘Housing and Communal Services’, Ministries of Energy and Water Resources; Finance; Economic Development and Trade; and Health (Sanitary and Epidemiological Services), Agencies for Antimonopoly; Construction and Architecture; Standardization, Metrology and Certification; and Geology, Committees for Environment Protection; Emergency Situation and Civil Defense, Private sector representatives, Concerned Oblast and district level Hukumats, and Jamoats; see, http://www.tj.undp.org/content/tajikistan/en/home/operations/projects/environment_and_energy/supp ort-to-effective-regulatory-framework-and-private-sector-inv.html. 9