A/HRC/36/45/Add.1 41. Certain contractual clauses and legal requirements potentially favour private companies, particularly for termination or amendment of concession contracts. 18 For instance, Decree No. 194/2009 establishing the judicial regime of municipal services for water supply, sanitation and solid waste management (art. 54) stipulates that the municipality can demand to lower tariffs when the internal rate of return to the private stakeholders reaches twice the amount established as a base profit in the concession contract. It was brought to the Special Rapporteur’s attention that municipalities often lacked the technical and negotiation skills required to defend their financial interests, including those of individual users. The Special Rapporteur is concerned about the unbalanced bargaining power between the private companies and the municipalities and the negative impact it has on the affordability of water and sanitation. V. Human rights to water and sanitation in Portugal A. Accessibility 1. Access to water and sanitation 42. At the beginning of the 1990s, 89 per cent of the population had access to piped water supply services. 19 Coverage increased to 95 per cent in 2011, reaching the goal identified in the second Strategic Water Supply and Wastewater Sanitation Plan. According to the 2011 census, which includes the autonomous regions of Azores and Madeira, 3,565,990 housing units had access to a water supply from a public network, and 405,843 units from individual solutions. It was reported that 22,294 housing units did not have any water supply. A more recent survey by the Water and Waste Services Regulation Authority, in 2015, showed that 96 per cent of housing units in continental Portugal had access to services from the public water supply system, with most of the remaining situations solved through individual solutions, such as a private well or borehole. 43. The Special Rapporteur notes that, in addition to connections to piped network and communal or shared facilities, individual on-site solutions may be acceptable (see A/70/203, paras. 69-71). At the same time, he emphasizes that the State has the obligation to ensure that individual solutions meet all the normative content of the human rights to water and sanitation. For instance, the water from individual solutions needs to be accessible continuously and the quality of water from wells or boreholes must meet the official standards and must be protected from animals and other sources of contamination. 44. Portugal also showed improvement in the area of sanitation. There was an increase in access to public sewerage systems from 60 per cent in 1993 to 83 per cent in 2015. The majority of the remaining situations were solved through individual solutions such as septic tanks. More specifically, according to the 2011 census, 3,931,508 housing units in Portugal had flushing toilets, while 26,609 housing units did not contain a toilet. The census also showed that 3,080,452 households had access to a sewerage system from the public network, while 20,257 households did not have access to any sewerage system. 45. The Special Rapporteur underscores that those individual solutions for sanitation may be acceptable (see A/70/203, paras. 56-60), if they are well constructed and maintained. The State should ensure the proper protection of human health and the environment, as well as affordable costs for latrine and tank maintenance. 46. The Special Rapporteur acknowledges the impressive progress made by Portugal, often referred to as “the Portuguese miracle”, in the water and sanitation sector. He congratulates Portugal on that achievement, but at the same time highlights the fact that there are still challenges in order for the Portuguese miracle to be complete. For instance, despite the reported wide coverage of sanitation services, the Special Rapporteur learned 18 19 Ibid., paras. 36 and 44. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization, “Progress on sanitation and drinking water: 2015 update and MDG assessment”, 2015, annex 3, p. 70. 11