A/68/264 living in informal settlements, find their human rights are compromised much more often than do others. Such informal settlements are often situated along riverbanks or low-lying land where polluted water tends to accumulate. Dwellers are thereby exposed to contamination, especially when they use polluted water for drinking. C. From access to sanitation to wastewater management 20. In 2010, the human right to water and sanitation was explicitly recognized by the General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, and is guaranteed as a component of the human right to an adequate standard of living. The Special Rapporteur, in her capacity as an independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation, defined sanitation from a human rights perspective as a system for the collection, transport, treatment and disposal or reuse of human excreta and associated hygiene. The Special Rapporteur has stated that States must ensure without discrimination that everyone has physical and economic access to sanitation, in all spheres of life, which is safe, hygienic, secure, socially and culturally acceptable, provides privacy and ensures dignity. She further considers that domestic wastewater, which flows from toilets, sinks and showers, should be included in the description of sanitation insofar as water regularly contains human excreta and the by-products of the associated hygiene (see A/HRC/12/24, paras. 63 and 87). The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights endorsed this definition at its forty-fifth session in its statement on the right to sanitation. (E/C.12/2010/1). 21. Human rights bodies thus understand sanitation broadly to include the treatment and disposal or reuse of excreta and associated wastewater. Sanitation does not stop simply with the use of latrines or toilets, but includes the safe disposal or reuse of faeces, urine and wastewater. Such a broad understanding is warranted, as sanitation concerns not only one’s own right to use a latrine or toilet, but also the rights of other people, in particular their right to health, on which there might be negative impacts. 22. In a similar vein, the Secretary-General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation, at a briefing in January 2013 calling for a post-2015 global goal on water, stated that for citizens and countries to enjoy the health benefits, economic growth and human dignity that comes with safe sanitation and clean water, a holistic approach that incorporating wastewater collection, treatment and reuse is necessary (available from www.unsgab.org/content/documents/UNSGABpost2015brief.pdf). 23. Moving beyond the direct link to sanitation and wastewater from households, the Special Rapporteur sees the need to consider wastewater from other sources, including the industrial and agricultural sectors, because contamination from those sources has a significant impact on water quality, and the impact of domestic wastewater cannot be considered in isolation. As long as wastewater is generated, whether it be from agriculture, industry, or settlements, and is not confined and appropriately treated, human rights will be at risk of being violated. 24. However, such a broad understanding is not always commonplace; for instance, it is not found in the Millennium Development Goals. The Goals have 13-41825 7/23