A/HRC/36/45 50. Regular cleaning, emptying of pits or other places that collect human excreta, and maintenance should also be regulated, in order to ensure the sustainability of sanitation facilities and continued access to them. Where on-site sanitation solutions are used, regulation must ensure that pits and septic tanks are required to be constructed in a way that contents can be adequately collected and disposed of at a sludge treatment facility rather than dumped into the environment.25 4. Affordability 51. Regulation must provide a multifaceted and contextual interpretation of affordability, in line with the human rights framework. National standards must ensure that water and sanitation services, whether privately or publicly provided, are affordable for all, including the poorest, and that water and sanitation tariffs do not compromise or threaten the realization of other rights. 52. While affordability provisions in water and sanitation laws are quite common, the challenge is to translate general provisions into concrete affordability standards (see A/HRC/30/39, para. 26). The Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking Water 2016-2017 country survey indicates that 68 per cent of respondent countries have a regulatory authority that is responsible for setting urban tariffs for either drinking water or sanitation or both. To ensure the affordability of services, regulatory frameworks must capture the specific needs of the several groups that live in vulnerable situations and offer differentiated solutions for the two main expenses incurred by users: the one-off connection fees that contribute to capital construction costs, and the cost of the recurrent charges (tariffs for operation, maintenance, capital assets renewal, and any financing costs of capital for new fixed assets). To this end, regulatory actors must promote the use of appropriate measures, including free or low-cost service provision for households with very low or no income, income supplements, social tariffs and targeted subsidies. It is essential that financial sustainability does not become the priority of tariff-setting, to the detriment of affordability, but that both elements are reconciled. Similarly, it is essential that investment in the extension of distribution networks to low-income unserved areas is not delayed in an attempt to minimize the affordability challenge. 53. Inextricably linked to the question of setting affordability standards for water and sanitation services is the issue of disconnections. Regulatory frameworks should set an outright prohibition on disconnections due to inability to pay. 5. Acceptability, privacy and dignity 54. The regulatory framework must provide a contextual meaning of the social and cultural acceptability of water and sanitation facilities. This cannot be done in a meaningful way without the genuine participation of those who use the services. While water should be of an acceptable colour, odour and taste for each personal or domestic use, 26 these are highly subjective parameters, and perceptions of these characteristics depend on local culture, education and experience.27 Personal sanitation is a highly sensitive issue across regions and cultures, and differing perspectives about which sanitation solutions are acceptable must be taken into account when designing, positioning, and setting conditions for the use of sanitation facilities (see A/70/203, para. 13). Regulations should stipulate that facilities need to allow for acceptable hygiene practices in specific cultures, such as anal and genital cleansing, and menstrual hygiene (see A/HRC/12/24, para. 80). Acceptability often requires separate facilities for women and men in public spaces, and for girls and boys in schools, which should be reflected in regulatory frameworks. Regulation should play an essential role in ensuring that toilets are constructed in a way that safeguards privacy and dignity. 25 26 27 Inga Winkler, “The human right to sanitation”, University of Pennsylvania Journal of International Law, vol. 37, No. 4 (2016), p. 1383. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 15, para. 12. Manual of the Human Rights to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation for Practitioners, p. 20. 13