A/HRC/30/39/Add.2 The Government has recently started to address access to water in informal settlements. The Special Rapporteur was informed that the Athi Water Services Board, for instance, has installed 15 washing facilities, 4 of which are biocentres in Kibera, the largest informal settlement in Kenya. In Kibera the Special Rapporteur visited a creative sanitation project established by the Umande Trust and UNICEF that is aimed at installing communal toilets and using the waste to produce biogas for cooking. Despite such efforts by civil society, donors and the Water Services Board, the communal sanitation facilities cover only about 20 per cent of the residents in the settlement. Other communal sanitation facilities the Special Rapporteur visited were not in a hygienic condition, and waiting lines at peak hours were long. In addition, communal toilets only partially meet the need if they are inaccessible at night, either because they are locked or because the journey to them would put the users at risk of attack. 76. The vast majority of people still rely on shared pit latrines that are manually emptied; the waste is disposed directly into a river or ditches. The Special Rapporteur also observed many tied plastic bags in the open ditch — a sign of the continuing practice of “flying toilets”. This is not only a denial of dignity and of the right to sanitation, but a serious public health concern. Not surprisingly, health indicators in informal settlements are worse than those in the rest of the country. 77. WHO and UNICEF have revealed disparities inside settlements as well.25 In informal settlements in Mombasa, open defecation is practised exclusively by the poor, while almost 70 per cent of those who are better off use flush toilets. A communal ecotoilet in Kibera visited by the Special Rapporteur, for instance, charges K Sh 5 per visit, which is not affordable for many residents. Such facilities are a great intermediate solution for high-density residential areas, however, many more targeted efforts by the Government are needed to ensure affordable, accessible and safe sanitation. In particular, this requires urgent measures by the Government to ensure that residents and owners are supported through the provision of information and subsidies to establish toilets — either flush toilets or latrines of adequate quality — in or next to their homes. Where residents rent homes from structure owners, the State must enforce the laws that require those who rent out structures to provide access to toilets that can be accessed at all times and without risk of harm. C. Women and girls 78. Women and girls are not only disproportionately affected by the lack of access to water and sanitation but bear a heavier burden with respect to collecting water. 79. During the mission, the Special Rapporteur saw mainly women and children carrying yellow water jerrycans in every place she visited or passed through. In fact, one study shows that the majority of households put the responsibility of fetching water only on women and children, and only 15.7 per cent of households balance the work of fetching water between men and women.26 This task obviously prevents women and children from exercising other human rights, such as the rights to work and to education. 80. Women and girls suffer the lack of sanitation and hygiene services differently because of their needs related to menstruation and their more acute needs for privacy and safety. One study provides specific examples of the impacts that women’s lack of access to 25 26 18 WHO and UNICEF, Progress on Drinking Water. See UNDP, “Small-scale water providers”, p. 26.