A/HRC/45/11 at the time of his appointment in 2014, the Special Rapporteur found two areas that needed to be explored further from a human rights perspective. First, how should affordability as an element of human rights to water and sanitation be monitored and what thresholds should be established? The Special Rapporteur notes that traditionally, the threshold had been based on the share of income and percentages, which he found too simplistic. The second gap relates to implementing procedural measures and policies to ensure access to protect the economically vulnerable in terms of financial accessibility. 32. In the report on accessibility, the Special Rapporteur emphasizes that, from a human rights perspective, the starting point for State decision-making on public financing and policy for water and sanitation service provision is that water and sanitation must be affordable to all. However, it is impossible to set a generally applicable affordability standard at the global level. Any such standard would be arbitrary and could not reflect the challenges people face in practice and the context in which they live, including how much they need to spend on housing, food and the realization of other human rights. The affordability of water and sanitation services is highly contextual, and States should therefore determine affordability standards at the national and/or local levels. The human rights framework stipulates important parameters for the process of doing so, in particular in terms of participation. To ensure affordability for all and a sustainable system, States must develop appropriate pricing, tariff and subsidy structures. Mechanisms to ensure affordability in practice include public finance, targeted measures, social protection floors, tariff schemes and subsidies. Access to water and sanitation should be affordable for all and as such States should have in place mechanisms to ensure the affordability of those services. Further, it follows that disconnection of water services due to inability to pay constitutes a violation of the human right to water. 2. Progress since 2010 33. The progress made is assessed based on two elements, namely, specific mechanisms implemented to ensure the affordability of water and sanitation services and specific measures taken to prohibit disconnections due to inability to pay. The submissions received illustrated several measures States have implemented to ensure the affordability of water and sanitation services. In Mexico City, for example, there is a territorial differentiation of tariffs: each neighbourhood (manzana) pays a different tariff, depending on its development index, which is based on the average marginalization, income and property values.41 This means that households from neighbourhoods with a low development level pay lower bills. 34. Another affordability measure is the provision of subsidies to the most vulnerable groups. In Costa Rica, for instance, Law No. 2726 of 1961 indicates that tariffs need to be set under the principle of distributive social justice, which translates into a crosssubsidization system (through tariffs) between those who have a greater capacity to pay and those who cannot pay the full cost of the service. 42 In addition to cross-subsidization, Costa Rica also has a national system of targeted subsidies for the consumption of water and sanitation services, set under Executive Decree No. 39757 of 2016. Households identified as in situations of poverty receive a subsidy of 50 per cent, and those in situations of extreme poverty a subsidy of 100 per cent, of the cost of up to 15 cubic metres of water per month. Both the consumption quantity and the identified households are revised periodically. In other countries, subsidies have been provided based exclusively on household income.43 To help the most vulnerable households cover tariffs, the Government of Singapore provides social assistance, via annual vouchers of between $40 and $120, to those in public housing. In Slovenia, there is a procedure that allows municipalities to subsidize the cost of services for households in economic deprivation (for example, because of unemployment) through the municipal budget.44 41 42 43 44 Water Resources Planning and Management, vol. 145, No. 4 (2019); and Rita Martins and others, “Water affordability issues in developed countries – the relevance of micro approaches”, Utilities Policy, vol. 43, part A, pp. 117–123. Submission from Mexico. Submission from Costa Rica. Submission from Singapore. Submission from Slovenia. 11