A/HRC/4/18 page 31 Q14. Do women and female-headed households have equal access to natural resources sufficient to their needs, including those necessary for their survival and livelihood, including, inter alia, land, water, building materials, fuel and fodder? What measures have been adopted by the State to effectively regulate distribution and ensure the accessibility and affordability of such resources for women and female-headed households, including through subsidies? Q15. What measures have been adopted to ensure that clean and safe water is reliably accessible and provided in adequate supply for individual, family and community use? Do women enjoy equal access to safe drinking water and to water for agricultural or other domestic use? (d) Affordability. Individuals and communities should have access to affordable housing and must have the corresponding right to livelihood so as to be able to afford decent housing. Q16. Do women enjoy equal access to housing finance? What policies and measures have been adopted by the State, including through subsidies, tax incentives or market regulation, to ensure affordability of housing particularly for women and female-headed households? Is there a national definition of “affordability” of housing (e.g. a maximum of one third of any household income should be sufficient to obtain adequate housing)? How does unaffordability of housing contribute to women’s vulnerability to VAW, e.g. preventing women from leaving situations of domestic violence? (e) Habitability. Adequate housing must provide needed space to live in dignity and peace. It must also provide protection from natural elements, structural hazards and disease vectors that are threats to physical well-being. The physical conditions of the home can affect the realization of other rights, including the highest attainable standard of mental and physical health, as well as education, and the absence of adequate conditions is not conducive to learning (especially for children). Q17. How do laws and policies that regulate the habitability of housing or define the habitability aspect of adequate housing take into consideration special needs of women? Q18. What laws and policies have been adopted to regulate environmental degradation and to guarantee the right to a safe environment? (f) Physical accessibility. Disadvantaged communities and groups, which often include women and female-headed households, must be allowed full and sustainable access to adequate housing and resources, including land, infrastructure and sources of livelihood, and the State must take account of special housing needs. Q19. What measures and policies have been adopted to guarantee equality of access to adequate housing for women and female-headed households and other disadvantaged groups within communities (e.g. battered women, women with HIV/AIDS, women with disability, indigenous women, refugees and internally displaced)?