A/68/264 combating corruption through strengthening participation, providing access to information and through transparency and accountability. 4. Ensuring participation 56. Policymakers often have little experience in working with the populations concerned, which makes participation difficult. All too often, participation is understood as a mere “tick-the-box exercise”. Yet, access to information, transparency and participation are key for realizing human rights and for ensuring the sustainability of services. 57. All people and stakeholders concerned must be given opportunities to participate in decision-making about wastewater management. The human rights perspective stipulates important requirements to involve not just those for whom wastewater infrastructure is built, but also those on whom the lack of wastewater treatment will have an impact. People should influence decision-making on types of facilities and systems, priorities in allocation of resources and approval of largescale projects, among many other issues. Participation in conducting impact assessments as outlined below is essential. While certain aspects of wastewater management require technical expertise, such inputs must be balanced with the needs and preferences of people. B. Contextualized measures and technologies 58. Human rights do not prescribe technology or management choices, but appropriate options can contribute in significant ways to their realization. What is appropriate depends on context — whether conventional, simplified, condominial, centralized or decentralized sewage systems, or on-site sanitation solutions with adequate septage disposal and management. While population growth and urbanization leads to challenges in many parts of the world, areas facing population decline require different approaches. In Japan, infrastructure is being adapted to decreasing demand and is being downsized accordingly (see A/HRC/18/33/Add.3, para. 20). 59. From a human rights perspective, the priority is to start where exposure is the greatest, instead of further improving services where basic treatment standards are already respected. Ever larger investments in sophisticated sewage treatment plants are not a priority. Rather, efficient confinement and treatment of septage and sludge, and the eradication of open defecation need to be prioritized. 60. A phased approach can be illustrated by the “wastewater ladder”, 41 which allows for gradual improvements of collection and treatment standards in line with the obligation of States to progressively realize human rights. The principle of progressive realization implies that the full realization of human rights cannot be achieved immediately, while obliging States to move as expeditiously and effectively as possible towards the goal of full realization. 61. Technically, wastewater treatment is possible to almost any standard. However, water of extremely high quality is required only for drinking or certain human uses; other livelihood activities and certain industrial and agricultural uses can do with __________________ 41 16/23 Background discussion paper on wastewater, p. 24. 13-41825