A/HRC/36/45/Add.2 prices to transport water by donkey to their hillside homes and to buy bottled water, as they are considered ineligible for full access to water on the basis of the community’s lack of legal status. The Special Rapporteur was informed by the authorities that it was difficult to provide water to communities living on hillsides where the elevation creates technical problems. However, civil society demonstrated that wealthy communities in other parts of the city, also living in high elevation areas, experienced few problems with access to piped water and high levels of service provision, showing that inequalities in water supply in the city are linked to wealth, and not to technical concerns. City officials argued that providing water and sanitation services to such locations and populations would legitimize illegal settlement or occupation of lands. 24. Equally, in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, in Chiapas State, the residential community of Real del Bosque has not been granted full legal status, which has serious implications in terms of access to water for over 8,000 households. An unregulated informal service provider operates the services and the community reported serious complaints to the Special Rapporteur about access to water, the quality of the services, their price and systematic and indiscriminate disconnections. The Special Rapporteur recalls that the human rights to water and sanitation must be respected, protected and fulfilled for all in society, irrespective of their social and economic conditions and their housing situation. Efforts should be made to formalize informal settlements and extend water and sanitation services to such locations. 2. Sanitation 25. The national provision of sanitation services, particularly for urban and rural areas not connected to sewerage systems, is a cause for concern and must not be neglected. The human right to sanitation does not necessarily require collective solutions, but establishes governments’ obligations to support individual solutions to meet the proper sanitary, health and environmental requirements. In some localities visited, the sanitation system was extremely basic or non-existent, poorly functioning or had ceased to function entirely with consequences including untreated wastewater discharged directly into local streams and rivers that are water sources for communities downstream. In Filomeno Mata, San José del Rincón and Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Special Rapporteur witnessed expensive wastewater treatment plants that are not operational due to lack of maintenance, collapsed sewerage lines and insufficient funds. 26. While the sanitation sector benefited from exceptionally high investment in 2012 (17.6 billion pesos), it has since received decreasing funds (5.6 billion pesos in 2015) and state and municipal authorities and civil society expressed concerns regarding the potential for further erosion of services or failure to expand or maintain essential sanitation infrastructure. The Special Rapporteur visited San Cristóbal de las Casas, which has over 200,000 inhabitants, and witnessed a large flow of untreated wastewater flowing downstream, inevitably contaminating water sources and resulting in serious health problems. 3. Public institutions 27. The Special Rapporteur was particularly concerned to learn that many schools in Mexico lack adequate drinking water and sanitation facilities. Mexico has 206,155 public schools, of which 42,617 obtain water from either a water well or a tanker truck, and 6,489 schools lack access to water. The quality of water when available is not guaranteed. For instance, the Special Rapporteur met protesters outside one public school in Real del Bosque who complained about the lack of water provision to the school, which was reportedly available only once every 12 days, requiring the parents’ association to pay several thousand pesos per month for water tankers, thus diminishing the resources available for other school needs or activities. Despite the costs they incur, they complained that there are no water fountains, toilet facilities are inadequate and school meals are prepared with contaminated water. In many schools, toilets do not function properly due to the lack of water to flush away waste. In Mexico City, over 120 preschool, primary and secondary public schools have to obtain water from sources other than the public water network. 8