A/HRC/18/33 6. National planning provides opportunities to ensure more coordinated and consistent responses to broader concerns such as climate change and water scarcity. Good planning will also identify and address incompatibilities with human rights as well as overlaps and gaps in laws and policies. Successful planning is based on broad participation, which further contributes to effective implementation and sustainability. Effective national planning frequently leads to improved data on water and sanitation as well as to clarified responsibilities for more efficient and effective management of water and sanitation, thus contributing to enhanced accountability. B. Realization of the human rights to water and to sanitation 7. The rights to water and to sanitation are guaranteed under international human rights law and States must take measures towards the progressive realization of these rights. This requires concrete and targeted steps to the maximum of their available resources. States are required to move towards the goal of full realization as expeditiously and effectively as possible, within the framework of international cooperation and assistance, where needed. Certain aspects of these rights are immediate obligations, including the requirement to guarantee them without discrimination. 8. The normative content of the rights to water and to sanitation provides the standard to be achieved in terms of the following criteria:4 (a) Availability. The human right to water is limited to personal and domestic uses and foresees a supply for each person that must be sufficient for these purposes. Likewise, a sufficient number of sanitation facilities must be available; (b) Quality. Water must be safe for consumption and other uses and not threaten human health. Sanitation facilities must be hygienically and technically safe to use. To ensure hygiene, access to water for cleansing and hand washing after use is essential; (c) Acceptability. Sanitation facilities, in particular, must be culturally acceptable. This will often require gender-specific facilities, constructed in a way that ensures privacy and dignity; (d) Accessibility. Water and sanitation services must be accessible to everyone in the household or its vicinity on a continuous basis, as well as in schools, health-care facilities and other public institutions and places. Physical security must not be threatened during access to facilities; (e) Affordability. Access to sanitation and water must not compromise the ability to pay for other essential necessities guaranteed by human rights, such as food, housing and health care. 9. These criteria reflect the need for a holistic, comprehensive, and coherent approach to fully realize the rights to water and to sanitation for all. 4 4 For a detailed explanation of these criteria, see Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 15 (2002) on the right to water, para. 12, and the report of the independent expert on the issue of human rights obligations related to access to safe drinking water and sanitation (A/HRC/12/24 and Corr.1), paras. 69 ff.