A/HRC/36/45/Add.2 springs, which require them to constantly fill containers for all their water needs. In dry seasons, springs may dry up or community members have to “wait for hours to fill a bucket”. 19. In dispersed rural communities, the challenges relating to the availability of safe drinking water and sanitation are often acute. Despite projects to install simplified technology in such communities to pump and purify water and to collect rainwater, for example, there is a minimum requirement of maintenance and service that is not always available, while rainwater harvesting relies on seasonal rainfall. That has left some communities, including the indigenous communities in Chiapas and Mexico State that the Special Rapporteur visited, with severe water availability problems and reliant on potentially hazardous groundwater sources. In some localities a decree of prohibition (“decreto de veda”) impedes aquifer exploitation in certain zones where aquifers are depleted and require recharging to supply larger communities. That restricts the drilling of wells in some adjacent rural areas and may be creating inequalities in access to water sources. Besides, the excessive number of concessions that have been approved without previously updating the information on water availability is a serious problem that remains unaddressed. 20. A high proportion of the water systems in the country are operated on a rotational basis under which households receive piped water only on specific and often unpredictable days or at certain times. For users, that means that they need to store water for a long period, which leads to deterioration of the water quality and affects human health. Some regions continue to receive limited or no water and sanitation services. In the face of national budget reductions, the Special Rapporteur expresses concern about the possibility of complacency with regard to service provision, based on official coverage figures that are misleading and may detract from or delay the implementation of essential measures to improve services and access to safe water and sanitation. That is a serious concern, and the Special Rapporteur cautioned that the supposed good performance should not be used as justification for the large reduction in the 2017 budget for water and sanitation. 21. Even in Mexico City, access to water is sporadic and unpredictable. According to the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City, 70 per cent of the population receive water for less than 12 hours per day. The Special Rapporteur visited the communities of Santa María Aztahuacan and Lomas de San Lorenzo in the Iztapalapa borough of Mexico City. The area is the city’s most populous, historically an area of high and uncontrolled population growth, and has a high level of socioeconomic marginalization. Despite being connected to the piped water system and having several wells in the area, civil society groups reported that hundreds of thousands of people in the area do not have regular access to water or have very limited and rotating access with no service on some days. There is a widespread view expressed by the community that vast amounts of water under the area are diverted by the authorities to supply other, high usage residential and commercial areas, as well as for megaprojects, including the development of a new airport. 22. Residents of those communities in Iztapalapa expressed fears that an additional well would be drilled to take even more water from the area and said that the authorities had failed to inform or adequately consult with them and had played down their problems, including concerns about cracks in housing due to subsidence. Residents expressed frustration over paying for a poor water service and inadequate sewerage system. One asked where their water was going, given that there were wells in their neighbourhood, but they did not get any water from them. Another complained that a budget for new water pipelines to the neighbourhoods had not been approved, while commercial and development projects had been authorized. Community members raised concerns about the quality of water provision from all the sources they use, including tankers, noting that they do not trust the water and that it contains visible solids, has a foul smell and a dark colour. The Special Rapporteur reminds the Government that the human rights to water and sanitation require that the domestic needs of all individuals, families and communities must be the first consideration and highest priority among the various water uses, as also explicitly required under the National Water Law (art. 22). 23. The Special Rapporteur visited some informal settlements, including the community of San José Obrero in Xochimilco, Mexico City, where residents have to pay unaffordable 7