A/HRC/24/44 when people have the least personal resources to adjust. Price increases are instituted concurrent with rising unemployment and social spending reductions, leaving many unable to afford essential services. This may lead to disconnections by service providers or to private individuals cancelling their water provision contracts (see A/HRC/18/33/Add.4, para. 50). Water unaffordability also can lead people to seek alternative and potentially unsafe water sources. Overall, these circumstances undermine the sustainability of systems, by reducing the number of users of the network or giving rise to a spiral of rising prices to compensate for the number of consumers lost. 3. Budgeting 33. The Special Rapporteur has previously discussed some of the gaps that arise in financing and budgeting for the water and sanitation sectors, which all affect the ability of States to provide water and sanitation in a sustainable way (see A/66/255). 34. Insufficient budgeting for the water and sanitation sectors which fails to prioritize the most marginalized people, a lack of overview of all resources (both national and international) devoted to the sectors and a lack of national budgeting that incorporates a long-term perspective and in particular operation and maintenance costs, jeopardizes sustainable provision. In times of economic growth, developing new water and sanitation infrastructure has often been prioritized. However, planning and budgeting to ensure that existing infrastructure or new infrastructure remains functional does not often take into account recurrent operation and maintenance costs. Instead of devoting the necessary 75 per cent of water and sanitation funds to operation and maintenance, on average only 31 per cent is devoted to these recurrent costs.53 35. The lack of budgeting for operation and maintenance raises some important questions about sustainability: will there be enough specialized human resources to look after the investments made, are there spare parts available, and do providers have the resources and capacity to operate and maintain the infrastructure? 36. Often States fail to adopt a tariff structure which is both affordable and promotes enough revenue to ensure financial sustainability. In most urban public water systems, charges often barely cover the recurrent costs of operation and maintenance, leaving little or no funds to recover the capital costs of modernization and expansion. A survey of such systems in 132 cities in high-, middle- and low-income countries found that 39 per cent did not recover even their operation and maintenance costs.54 The impact of decreased spending then threatens the sustainability of water systems as lack of reinvestment leads to deterioration of the system and leakages, and the low level of investment in the water sector hampers growth. In rural areas neglect of operation and maintenance budgets and cost recovery contribute to widespread non-functionality. 55 Accessibility and quality are compromised because of limitations on services, lack of expansion and lack of maintenance. Affordability is also affected because funds that would have been available before the financial downturn have been decreased or reallocated, and therefore prices to the user increase to cover the shortfall. 37. States must allocate funding to operation and maintenance in times of stability to ensure that systems and facilities do not deteriorate. 56 Not doing so creates a significant risk 53 54 55 56 UN-Water Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) 2012 Report: The Challenge of Extending and Sustaining Services (WHO, 2012), p. 29. World Water Assessment Programme, World Water, p. 5. See OECD, “Managing water” (footnote 48 above). WaterAid, Sustainability Framework, p. 16. 11