A/HRC/33/49/Add.3 several precautionary measures such as boiling water. Fortunately, according to relevant authorities and health workers who the Special Rapporteur interviewed, there had been no reports about diarrhoea outbreaks due to the extreme water shortage at the time of the visit. The Government should keep an eye on developments as the lack of water often leads to unhygienic conditions and high risks of water-related diseases. D. Affordability of water and sanitation 35. The human rights to water and sanitation require that the price of water and sanitation and the associated direct and indirect costs and charges be affordable and not compromise or threaten a person’s capacity to satisfy other fundamental human rights, such as the rights to food, health, housing or education. The human rights framework does not require that the Government directly provide basic services for free. Rather, it requires the State to create an enabling environment for people to fully enjoy their human rights. However, in cases where people cannot accede to their rights for reasons beyond their control, including when they cannot afford to construct sanitation facilities, the Government has the obligation to provide sanitation services directly. In situations where people do not have the economic capacity to access drinking water at all, as is usually the case of people in situations of homelessness or chronic unemployment, the Government also has the obligation to ensure access to water, in some cases, free of charge. 36. Botswana currently does not have an affordability standard for personal and domestic water or sanitation use. The 2012 draft national water policy proposes a strategy to “monitor household expenditure on domestic water supplies to ensure affordability such that the maximum household expenditures account for less than 5 per cent of household disposable income”. The Special Rapporteur again encourages Botswana to adopt the draft national water policy as soon as possible and to focus its efforts on its implementation. Setting a standard and a monitoring mechanism is an important step for realizing affordable access to water and sanitation. There are several different international recommendations regarding what proportion of household income should be spent on water and sanitation but, from a human rights perspective, additional measures must be put in place in order to ensure that no one who cannot afford to devote that percentage of their income to water and sanitation for various reasons is deprived of adequate sanitation and sufficient quantities of safe and accessible water. 37. Under the water sector reform that started in 2009, the Water Utilities Corporation streamlined its tariff schemes: one for the public sector and another for domestic, commercial and industrial use. The Corporation adopted an increasing block tariff system with a minimum fee of 20 pula (approximately $1.71) for the latter sector and 50 pula for the public sector. For domestic, commercial and industrial use, the tariff starts at 2 pula for the first five cubic metres, increasing to 8 pula (5 to 15 cubic metres), 13 pula (15 to 25 cubic metres), 20 pula (25 to 40 cubic metres) and 25 pula (above 40 cubic metres). In addition, the Water Utilities Corporation charges all customers for wastewater services connected to the central wastewater systems and applies an increasing block tariff without a minimum fee. The tariff is 0.5 pula for the first five cubic metres, increasing to 2 pula (5 to 15 cubic metres), 3 pula (15 to 25 cubic metres), 4 pula (25 to 40 cubic metres) and 5 pula (above 40 cubic metres). Based on the average consumption per capita per day in rural areas, a household of four is estimated to pay about 163 pula ($14) per month. In rural areas, approximately 13,000 households live below $1 per day as of 2009/10.12 For those 12 GE.16-12031 See Botswana, Botswana Core Welfare Indicators Survey 2009/2010, main report, vol. 1 (October, 2013), available at www.bw.undp.org/content/dam/botswana/docs/Poverty/Botswana% 20Poverty%20Survey%202009_2010.pdf. 11