A/66/255 determine which technology is most appropriate in a given context to fully realize the rights to water and sanitation. Investing in more expensive technologies does not necessarily lead to significant improvements in service. 62 Investing in low-cost, high-efficiency technologies, meanwhile, can dramatically reduce the amount of funding required to achieve the rights. 63 50. The Special Rapporteur does not categorically reject any particular technology or suggest that expanding or improving access to water and sanitation should be done cheaply. Low-cost solutions for sanitation are often only temporary solutions, as reliable services that yield the long-term public health improvements normally come at a higher cost. States should determine which technology is appropriate based on the objective. If the goal is, for instance, to stabilize access to water in an informal settlement in the short term with the expectation that the community will be reached by more permanent services after a few years, low-cost options such as water kiosks served by utilities might be acceptable for a limited period. D. Operation and maintenance 51. Directing more resources towards operation and maintenance is essential for the long-term sustainability of efforts to realize the rights to water and sanitation. Seventy-five per cent of the current annual resource needs to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation are for replacing and maintaining existing resources. 64 Unfortunately, despite progress in expanding coverage of water and sanitation services, there are clear signs of slippage, whereby communities that had received improved coverage fell into old patterns owing to poor maintenance. 65 In India, for instance, roughly 30 per cent of all communities that had gained improved access to water and sanitation have since lost some or all of that coverage. 66 Throughout Africa, it is estimated that, at any given moment, between 30 and 40 per cent of hand pumps are not functional. 67 Comparatively little international aid currently goes to covering such expenses. 68 52. Investments that take the life-cycle cost of a water or sanitation improvement into account, or that are specifically directed towards the maintenance and operation of new and existing services, are essential to avoid this sort of retrogression. In __________________ 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 11-44364 Catarina Fonseca and others, “Life-cycle costs approach for water and sanitation services that last” (WASHCost, April 2011). Available from www.washcost.info/page/121 (log-in required). Guy Hutton and Jamie Bartram, “Regional and global costs of attaining the water supply and sanitation target (target 10) of the Millennium Development Goals, document WHO/HSE/AMR/08/01 (Geneva, World Health Organization, 2008). Available from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/economic/mdg_global_costing.pdf. UN-Water Global Annual Assessment, p. 21. Fonseca and others, “Life cycle costs approach for water and sanitation services that last”. Ton Schouten and others, “Taking a service delivery approach to monitoring water supply in low-income areas and implications for the Joint Monitoring Programme” (WASHCost, International Water and Sanitation Centre, 2011), sect. 1.1. Available from www.washcost.info/redir/.../Monitoring_sustainability_JMP_Berlin.pdf (log-in required). Ibid. UN-Water Global Annual Assessment, p. 32. Of 27 international donors, 8 were able to break down disbursements according to new services, increased service or treatment levels, and maintain or replace existing services, with the latter receiving only 13 per cent of aid. 17