A/HRC/36/45/Add.2 42. In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the Special Rapporteur met with community members of the residential borough of Real del Bosque, who complained about infrequent water supply, the poor quality of water, and services being cut off due to non-payment for many, even those struggling on low incomes and some people with chronic health conditions. One woman said that she had accumulated a large debt due to water bills and her service was cut off and her appeals to the service provider rejected, despite the fact that she is suffering from cancer. Residents called for accountability for service provision to be urgently addressed and for the municipal water provider (Sistema Municipal de Agua Potable y Alcantarillado) to take over the provision of services from a private body that had been created and that they considered to be overcharging and failing them. One resident stated that “people from water tank trucks tell us that they take water from our own wells to sell back to us”. The provider explained that the problems stemmed from water shortages, which caused wells to dry out, and from a lack of government support and the politicization of the issue by some parties and complainants. Despite being one of the largest residential neighbourhoods in the city, the legal status of Real del Bosque has not been settled, due to fraud, and houses were sold without having the correct entitlements to services and utility supply, which is not acceptable under human rights law. D. Sustainability 43. The Special Rapporteur encountered many cases of costly infrastructure projects for water provision, sewerage and wastewater treatment that had been implemented by the federal and state authorities, but had quickly ceased to function due to a lack of maintenance and skilled operation, as well as the high energy and maintenance costs required. 44. For example, he was alarmed to learn that out of 194 wastewater treatment plants in Chiapas State, only a very low proportion were functioning, 5 resulting in a major problem of contamination of water sources. In Filomeno Mata, an expensive wastewater treatment plant that was installed has, according to the local authorities, functioned for one month only due to blockages and a lack of maintenance and capacity to repair the influent pipeline. Those failures result in wastewater flowing directly from the town into the local river downstream, which is a source of water for other communities in the water basin. No adequate solution is in sight for the residents and the local authorities expressed their frustration, highlighting their lack of capacity to address the issue due to their lack of financial resources and technical capacity and poor support from the state and federal governments. IV. Population groups requiring special attention A. People living in dispersed rural areas 45. Providing safe water and sanitation solutions to highly dispersed rural communities presents specific challenges that are not being adequately addressed in practice in Mexico. In some locations, the Special Rapporteur witnessed small-scale community-managed water and sanitation systems, built through a national programme managed by the National Water Commission for implementing rainwater harvesting and “ecotechnologies” for rural communities. While they are positive practices, those systems should receive improved support and funds from different levels of governments to ensure their expansion and effective functioning in practice. Regrettably, the Special Rapporteur also witnessed examples of cases in which such systems are poorly supported and consequently they cease to function properly, leaving communities to return to potentially unsafe water sources and poor sanitation practices. 5 12 Twelve (6 per cent) according to the Chiapas State authorities and 35 (18 per cent) according to the National Water Commission.