Recital 39

(39)Target 6.2 of UN Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation requires Member States, by 2030, to achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations. Sanitation facilities should allow the safe management and disposal of human urine, faeces and menstrual blood and the changing of menstrual products. Furthermore, Principle 20 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states that everyone has the right to access essential services of good quality, including water and sanitation. Against that background, and in accordance with the recommendations in the WHO Guidelines for Sanitation and Health ²³ and the Protocol on Water and Health to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes, done in London on 17 June 1999, Member States should tackle the issue of access to sanitation at national level. That should be done through actions ensuring access to sanitation for all, for example by setting up sanitation facilities in public spaces, as well as by encouraging the availability of appropriate sanitation facilities in public administrations and public buildings free of charge or making them affordable to all, including all kinds of facilities and services, such as flush and dry toilets. They should be safely managed, which means that they should be accessible to all, where appropriate, at all times, including for people with particular needs, such as children, older persons, persons with disabilities and homeless people, that they should be placed in a location that ensures maximum safety for users, and that they should be hygienically and technically safe to use. Such facilities should also be sufficient in number to ensure that the needs of people are met and waiting times are not unreasonably long. The sufficient number of sanitation facilities in public spaces should be decided at the appropriate level, taking into account the principle of subsidiarity.