A/62/214 severe health hazards. Thus, women are hit hardest by the inadequate availability of water and sanitation services. 98. The water and sanitation needs of women are different from those of men. For example, women tend to place a higher value on household toilets than men, yet women are often absent from decision-making and priority-setting processes. The result is that the distinctive water and sanitation needs of women and girls (for example during menstruation and during and after pregnancy) are often neglected in discussions about sanitation and hygiene. 99. Inadequate water supply and sanitation services severely prejudices the health, productivity, income-generating capacity, physical security and dignity of women living in poverty. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes the need to ensure women’s participation in decision-making and priority-setting processes, and urges States to adopt a gender-sensitive approach in all relevant policymaking. Moreover, involving women in decision-making will lead to positive health benefits for the entire community. 3. Global warming 100. Those living in poverty are disproportionately affected by the adverse effects of global warming. Not only has global warming led to a decline in dependable access to water, it has also led to a disruption in natural ecosystems. Warmer and wetter conditions resulting from climate change are increasing the range and season of vectors, such as mosquitoes and tsetse flies, which spread diseases such as malaria, dengue and yellow fever, and encephalitis. 56 101. Global warming will adversely affect the world’s hydrological cycle and result in more droughts and floods. Drought poses serious threats to health. 57 As clean water sources evaporate, people resort to more polluted alternatives that may lead to epidemics of water-borne diseases. Likewise, floods not only increase the risk of drowning and destroying crops, they also spread disease by extending the range of vectors and by washing agricultural pollutants into drinking water supplies.57 102. Despite these disturbing trends, the international community has not yet confronted the health threats posed by global warming. The failure of the international community to take the health impact of global warming seriously will endanger the lives of millions of people across the world. V. Conclusions and Recommendations 103. The conclusions and recommendations set out below focus on section IV. 104. The right to the highest attainable standard of health not only encompasses medical care but also underlying determinants of health, such as safe water, adequate sanitation, healthy occupational and environmental conditions, and freedom from discrimination. Too often, a disproportionate amount of attention is devoted to medical care, at the expense of the underlying determinants of health. __________________ 56 57 22 McMichael and others, “Climate change and human health” (WHO/UNEP/WMO, 2003). New Economics Foundation, The End of Development (2006). 07-45379