Fact-checked by Grok 2 weeks ago

Sustainable Development Goal 6

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) is one of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, adopted in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with the aim of ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.^[1] The goal encompasses eight targets focused on universal access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene, improved water quality through wastewater treatment, increased water-use efficiency, integrated water resources management, protection of water-related ecosystems, enhanced international cooperation, and community participation in water management improvements.^[2] Tracked by 11 indicators, SDG 6 addresses fundamental needs for human health, ecosystems, and economic productivity, recognizing water scarcity and pollution as barriers exacerbated by population growth, urbanization, and climate variability.^[3] Progress toward SDG 6 has been uneven, with global coverage of safely managed drinking water services rising from 68% in 2015 to 74% in 2024, enabling 961 million additional people to gain access, yet leaving approximately 2 billion without it as of 2022.^[4] Similarly, safely managed sanitation reached only partial coverage, with 3.5 billion people lacking it in 2022, and open defecation persisting in regions with weak infrastructure.^[1] Official assessments indicate none of the targets are on track, necessitating a sixfold acceleration in drinking water progress and fivefold for sanitation to meet 2030 benchmarks, amid challenges like inadequate financing, governance failures, and institutional silos that undermine coordinated action.^[5]^[6] Critics highlight systemic issues, including broken international commitments and reluctance among states to prioritize water governance over competing interests, which have slowed empirical gains despite substantial aid inflows.^[6] Peer-reviewed analyses underscore barriers such as corruption in local implementation, insufficient data for monitoring, and trade-offs with other development priorities, questioning the goal's feasibility without radical shifts in policy enforcement and resource allocation.^[7] While SDG 6 has mobilized partnerships and innovations in monitoring, its off-track status reflects causal realities of mismatched incentives and capacity deficits in low-income settings, where population pressures and environmental degradation compound access deficits.^[5]

Origins and Framework

Historical Context Preceding SDG 6

The United Nations Water Conference, held in Mar del Plata, Argentina, from March 14 to 25, 1977, marked the first intergovernmental effort to address global water issues comprehensively, convening representatives from 116 governments to assess water resource status and recommend actions for supply, sanitation, and management.^[8] The resulting Mar del Plata Action Plan emphasized community water supply and sanitation as priorities, advocating for national programs to extend safe drinking water to underserved populations and highlighting the need for international cooperation in shared resources.^[9] This conference laid foundational principles for subsequent UN initiatives by recognizing water scarcity and pollution as barriers to development, though implementation varied widely due to limited funding and technical capacity in developing regions. Building on Mar del Plata recommendations, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the period 1981–1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade through Resolution 35/18, aiming to provide safe drinking water and adequate sanitation to all people by 1990 via national strategies supported by international aid.^[10] The Decade mobilized over $100 billion in investments, extending improved water access to approximately 1.3 billion additional people and sanitation to 1 billion, yet it fell short of universality, achieving only about 77% global water coverage and 54% for sanitation by 1990, constrained by rapid population growth, economic challenges, and uneven commitment from donor nations.^[11] The 1992 International Conference on Water and the Environment in Dublin, Ireland, advanced integrated approaches by issuing four guiding principles: recognizing freshwater as finite and vulnerable; prioritizing participatory management linking water and socioeconomic development; centering women's roles in water provision; and treating water as an economic good to encourage efficiency.^[12] These Dublin Principles influenced the Rio Earth Summit's Agenda 21, particularly Chapter 18 on water resources management, which called for integrated policies balancing supply, demand, and ecosystem protection.^[13] The Millennium Development Goals, adopted in 2000, incorporated water and sanitation into MDG 7 (Ensure environmental sustainability), with Target 7.C specifically committing to halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation relative to 1990 baselines.^[14] This target spurred progress, meeting the drinking water goal five years early in 2010 by reducing the unserved proportion from 24% to 12%, but sanitation lagged, with only a 28% reduction versus the 50% needed, leaving 2.4 billion without improved facilities by 2015 due to urban-rural disparities and inadequate wastewater treatment..pdf) These shortcomings, alongside emerging concerns over water quality and efficiency absent from MDG metrics, underscored the limitations of siloed targets and propelled the evolution toward the more holistic SDG 6 framework.

Adoption Process and UN Resolution

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation, emerged from the post-2015 development agenda following the expiration of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015. The MDGs had included targets for halving the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, but these were criticized for limited scope and uneven progress, particularly in sanitation and equity. In response, the United Nations initiated a comprehensive process in 2012 to formulate successor goals, emphasizing universality across all nations rather than focusing primarily on developing countries. This shift aimed to integrate economic, social, and environmental dimensions more holistically.^[15] The formulation of the SDGs involved extensive multistakeholder consultations, including national dialogues, thematic consultations, and inputs from civil society, businesses, and academia, described as the most inclusive process in UN history. A pivotal role was played by the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals, established by the UN General Assembly in 2012 and co-chaired by diplomats from Colombia and Indonesia, which comprised 70 member states and proposed a framework of 17 goals and 169 targets in July 2014. This proposal, including SDG 6's focus on water and sanitation management, underwent further refinement through intergovernmental negotiations led by the General Assembly from January to August 2015, culminating in consensus on the final text.^[16]^[17] On September 25, 2015, during a high-level summit in New York, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted Resolution A/RES/70/1, titled "Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development," formally enshrining the 17 SDGs, including SDG 6, with a 2030 timeline. The resolution was endorsed by all 193 UN member states without dissent, marking a commitment to integrated action on water access, sanitation, hygiene, and ecosystem protection under SDG 6. Implementation began on January 1, 2016, with the goals integrated into national policies and monitored via global indicators.^[18]^[19]

Core Objectives and Philosophical Underpinnings

Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) aims to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030.^[1] This core objective addresses critical deficiencies in access to safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and hygiene, which affect billions globally, while promoting efficient water use, protection of water-related ecosystems, and integrated water resources management.^[20] The goal encompasses eight specific targets: universal access to safe and affordable drinking water (6.1); adequate sanitation and ending open defecation (6.2); improved water quality through pollution reduction (6.3); substantial increase in water-use efficiency and reduction in scarcity (6.4); implementation of integrated water resources management (6.5); protection and restoration of water-related ecosystems (6.6); enhanced international cooperation for water capacity-building (6.a); and support for local community participation in water management (6.b).^[21] These targets are measured by 11 indicators, focusing on empirical metrics like population coverage percentages and wastewater treatment ratios.^[3] Philosophically, SDG 6 is underpinned by the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2015, which frames water and sanitation as integral to human dignity, health, and environmental integrity.^[17] The agenda builds on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), particularly MDG 7 on environmental sustainability, but shifts toward a universal applicability across all nations rather than solely targeting developing countries, emphasizing principles of universality, human rights, and the integration of economic, social, and environmental dimensions.^[22] Central to this is the recognition of safe drinking water and sanitation as human rights, affirmed by UN General Assembly Resolution 64/292 in July 2010, which posits access as essential for realizing other rights like health and adequate living standards. Causally, the framework posits that sustainable water management prevents resource depletion and conflict, though empirical evidence highlights that local governance and economic incentives often drive outcomes more than top-down mandates.^[23] The underpinnings also reflect a commitment to intergenerational equity, echoing the 1987 Brundtland Report's definition of sustainable development as meeting present needs without compromising future generations' abilities to meet theirs, applied specifically to finite water resources amid growing demands from population growth and climate variability. This approach prioritizes ecosystem restoration and pollution minimization to maintain hydrological cycles, recognizing water's cross-cutting role in achieving other SDGs, such as zero hunger (SDG 2) and good health (SDG 3).^[1] However, the UN's emphasis on global cooperation and technology transfer assumes state-led interventions can override local barriers, a premise critiqued for overlooking property rights and market mechanisms that have historically accelerated infrastructure development in resource-scarce regions.^[24] Overall, SDG 6's philosophy integrates anthropocentric welfare with ecocentric preservation, though implementation reveals tensions between aspirational equity and practical resource allocation constraints.^[3]

Targets and Indicators

Targets 6.1–6.3: Access, Sanitation, and Water Quality

Target 6.1 commits to achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030.^[25] This target emphasizes accessibility without financial barriers and quality standards to prevent health risks from contamination. Progress is monitored through indicator 6.1.1, which tracks the proportion of the population using safely managed drinking water services.^[26] Safely managed services require an improved water source—such as piped supplies, boreholes, protected wells, or rainwater collection—that is located on premises, available when needed (sufficient quantity and at least 12 hours per day or four days per week), and free from fecal contamination (e.g., E. coli absent) as well as priority chemicals like arsenic and fluoride per WHO guidelines.^[27] Verification of contamination demands laboratory testing, but capacity constraints in low-income countries often result in reliance on self-reported access without quality checks, potentially overstating safe coverage.^[28] Target 6.2 focuses on achieving access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030, including ending open defecation and prioritizing women, girls, and vulnerable groups to address dignity, safety, and gender-specific risks like assault during collection.^[25] Indicator 6.2.1 measures the proportion of the population using (a) safely managed sanitation services and (b) handwashing facilities with soap and water.^[29] Safely managed sanitation entails an improved facility (e.g., flush/pour flush to piped sewer, septic tank, or pit latrine; ventilated improved pit latrine; composting toilet) that is not shared with other households and where excreta are either treated and disposed on-site or transported to off-site treatment.^[30] The handwashing component requires a facility with water and soap (or ash) at the dwelling, plot, or public space for basic hygiene to curb disease transmission.^[30] Target 6.3 aims to improve water quality by 2030 through reducing pollution, halting illegal dumping, curbing hazardous chemical releases, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, and boosting recycling and safe reuse.^[25] Dual indicators assess this: 6.3.1 gauges the proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated before environmental discharge, where safe treatment meets national standards or achieves at least secondary level (e.g., biological processes reducing biochemical oxygen demand by 70% and chemical oxygen demand by 75%).^[31] Domestic wastewater includes household blackwater and greywater, while industrial covers process effluents excluding cooling water.^[31] Indicator 6.3.2 evaluates the proportion of monitored water bodies (rivers, lakes, groundwater) with good ambient quality, defined as at least 80% of measurements complying with country-specific target values for key physical, chemical, and biological parameters reflecting both natural and human impacts.^[32] Monitoring challenges persist, with limited data availability in many nations hindering accurate global assessments.^[33]

Targets 6.4–6.6: Efficiency, Management, and Ecosystems

Target 6.4 seeks to substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors by 2030 while ensuring sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity and reduce the number of people affected by it.^[20] The associated indicators include 6.4.1, which tracks the change in water-use efficiency as the ratio of gross value added to total freshwater withdrawn (measured in USD per cubic meter), and 6.4.2, which assesses the level of water stress as the ratio of total freshwater withdrawn to total renewable water resources minus environmental flow requirements, expressed as a percentage:

where TFWW is total freshwater withdrawn, TRWR is total renewable water resources, and EFR is environmental flow requirements.^[34] Globally, water-use efficiency improved from 17.5 USD/m³ in 2015 to 21.5 USD/m³ in 2022, representing a 23% increase driven primarily by economic growth in manufacturing and services rather than sector-specific conservation.^[35] However, agriculture, which accounts for approximately 70% of global freshwater withdrawals, shows slower efficiency gains, and absolute water demand continues to rise with population growth and urbanization, potentially offsetting relative improvements.^[36] In 2020, about 2.4 billion people lived in water-stressed countries (level of water stress exceeding 25%), with projections indicating worsening scarcity in regions like the Middle East and North Africa due to climate variability and overexploitation.^[37] Target 6.5 calls for the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) at all levels by 2030, including transboundary cooperation where appropriate, to promote coordinated planning across sectors and borders.^[20] Indicator 6.5.1 measures the degree of IWRM implementation on a scale from 0 to 100, encompassing enabling environments, institutions, and management instruments. As of 2023, global IWRM implementation stood at 57%, up from 49% in 2017, but this pace falls short of the linear trajectory needed for full implementation by 2030, with least developed countries averaging only 45%.^[38] Indicator 6.5.2 tracks the proportion of transboundary river and lake basins with operational arrangements for cooperation; in 2022, this covered about 60% of international basins by area, though enforcement remains uneven due to geopolitical tensions and capacity gaps in data sharing.^[39] Challenges include fragmented governance, where national policies often prioritize short-term extraction over holistic basin management, exacerbating conflicts in shared aquifers and rivers like the Nile and Mekong.^[40] Target 6.6 requires protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers, and lakes, by 2020—a deadline that has passed without achievement.^[25] Indicator 6.6.1 monitors changes in the extent of these ecosystems using earth observation data, revealing ongoing degradation: from 2016 to 2023, over 20% of monitored lakes and reservoirs experienced surface area loss due to drought, pollution, and hydrological alterations, while wetland extent declined by an average of 35% since 1970 in reporting regions.^[41] UNEP assessments indicate that efforts to halt degradation must be scaled up urgently, as invasive species, dam construction, and land conversion continue to impair ecosystem services like filtration and flood regulation, affecting downstream water quality and biodiversity.^[42] In Africa and Asia, where data coverage is limited, river fragmentation from infrastructure has reduced connectivity by up to 50% in major basins, underscoring institutional underinvestment and the need for restoration funding exceeding current official development assistance levels.^[43] Overall, these targets face compounded pressures from climate-induced variability, population-driven demand, and policy silos, with UN data signaling that current trajectories will not meet 2030 benchmarks without accelerated, evidence-based interventions.^[20]

Targets 6.a–6.b: International Support and Local Participation

Target 6.a calls for enhanced international cooperation and capacity-building assistance to developing countries by 2030, targeting water- and sanitation-related programs such as water harvesting, desalination, efficiency improvements, wastewater treatment, recycling, and reuse technologies, alongside support for integrated water resources management aligned with national plans.^[25] The associated indicator tracks the amount of official development assistance (ODA) for water and sanitation integrated into recipient governments' coordinated spending plans.^[44] Total ODA disbursements to the water sector reached $8.7 billion in 2023, down marginally from $8.9 billion in 2022, reflecting limited growth amid rising global demands.^[25] Between 2015 and 2021, the share of water-related ODA channeled through recipient governments increased from 60.2% to 71.8%, suggesting better alignment with local priorities but insufficient to offset broader shortfalls in SDG 6 financing.^[45] Multilateral and bilateral initiatives, including those from the World Bank and OECD members, have prioritized capacity-building in technologies like wastewater recycling, yet total ODA for water and sanitation remains below the estimated $114 billion annually needed for universal access by 2030.^[46]^[47] In 2023, OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) ODA overall hit $223.3 billion, but water-specific allocations have not scaled proportionally to population growth and urbanization pressures in low-income countries.^[48] Target 6.b emphasizes strengthening local community roles in water and sanitation management to foster sustainable outcomes.^[25] The indicator measures the proportion of local administrative units with operational policies for community participation; globally, this exceeded 70% of countries since 2016, indicating widespread formal adoption but limited evidence of deepened engagement or measurable impacts on service delivery.^[25] Studies of water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions in regions like sub-Saharan Africa show that incorporating community-led operation and maintenance can improve latrine usage and system longevity by 20-50% compared to top-down approaches, though sustained participation often falters due to inadequate funding and training.^[49] In practice, programs like community-managed water points in rural Zambia demonstrate higher accountability when locals oversee repairs and tariffs, yet broader assessments reveal persistent gaps: only about 40% of such initiatives report active, ongoing community input beyond initial planning phases.^[50] Despite policy prevalence, empirical data from 2023 UN reports underscore that local participation has not accelerated progress toward SDG 6 targets, with billions still lacking basic services amid institutional barriers to genuine empowerment.^[51]

Indicator Framework and Measurement Challenges

The global indicator framework for SDG 6 comprises 11 indicators aligned with its eight targets, as established by United Nations General Assembly resolution A/RES/71/313 adopted on July 6, 2017, and refined by the UN Statistical Commission.^[52] These indicators emphasize measurable outcomes such as access to services, resource efficiency, and ecosystem protection, with custodians including WHO/UNICEF for drinking water (6.1.1), sanitation (6.2.1), and hygiene (6.2.2); UNEP for water quality (6.3.2), integrated water resources management (6.5.1), and ecosystem condition (6.6.1); and FAO for water stress (6.4.2) and efficiency (6.4.1).^[23] Key examples include Indicator 6.1.1, tracking the proportion of the population using safely managed drinking water services (defined as improved sources free from contamination, available on premises, and within 30 minutes' collection time); Indicator 6.3.2, measuring the proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality based on dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, and nutrient levels; and Indicator 6.5.1, assessing the degree of integrated water resources management implementation via a 0-100 scoring system derived from national questionnaires on policy, management, and financing.^[3] This framework relies on tier classification: Tier I indicators (e.g., 6.1.1) have established methodologies and data availability, while Tier II (e.g., 6.6.1 on ecosystem extent) lack full global datasets, and Tier III (now resolved for most) previously needed methodological development.^[53] Measurement challenges stem primarily from inconsistent data quality, limited national capacities, and methodological gaps, particularly in low-income and rural settings where over 40% of SDG 6 data remains unavailable or outdated as of 2023.^[54] Household surveys like Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), conducted every 3-5 years in many countries, form the backbone for access indicators (6.1.1, 6.2.1, 6.2.2), but infrequency leads to reliance on modeling by bodies like the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, introducing estimation uncertainties—e.g., global safely managed sanitation coverage is extrapolated from partial data, potentially understating rural deficits.^[55] For environmental indicators like 6.3.2 and 6.6.1, sparse monitoring networks (e.g., fewer than 10% of rivers and lakes in sub-Saharan Africa have regular quality assessments) result in incomplete baselines, with UNEP's 2024 mid-term review noting insufficient stations and inconsistent protocols hindering trend analysis.^[56] Integrated indicators such as 6.5.1 depend on subjective self-reporting via UN questionnaires, raising concerns over harmonization and potential over-optimism, as national scores often exceed independent audits.^[6] Further complications arise from definitional ambiguities and external pressures; "safely managed" criteria require verifying treatment and contamination, yet many countries lack microbiological testing infrastructure, leading to proxy-based approximations that may inflate progress figures.^[7] Climate variability and urbanization exacerbate data gaps for efficiency metrics (6.4.1, 6.4.2), where water use data from agricultural and industrial sectors is often unverified due to metering deficiencies—e.g., FAO estimates global water stress via total freshwater withdrawal over available renewable resources minus environmental flows, but subnational disaggregation is rare.^[57] While innovations like remote sensing and citizen science offer supplements (e.g., satellite-derived ecosystem change for 6.6.1), their integration remains limited by validation needs and costs, with a 2021 analysis highlighting that without accelerated capacity-building, over 30% of SDG 6 targets will evade reliable tracking by 2030.^[58] These issues underscore systemic reliance on voluntary national reporting, which peer-reviewed critiques attribute to underinvestment in statistical systems rather than inherent target flaws.^[59]

Empirical Progress and Assessments

Global and Regional Access Trends Since 2015

Since the adoption of SDG 6 in 2015, global coverage of safely managed drinking water services—defined as water from an improved source located on premises, available when needed, and free from fecal and priority chemical contamination—rose from 68% to 74% by 2024, enabling 961 million additional people to access such services.^[60] This equates to an annual increase of about 1.2 percentage points, though 2.1 billion people, or one in four globally, remained without safely managed drinking water in 2024.^[60] Progress accelerated in rural areas, where coverage improved more substantially than in urban settings, reflecting targeted interventions but also highlighting urban infrastructure bottlenecks amid population growth.^[61] Safely managed sanitation services—encompassing improved facilities that safely dispose of human waste without open defecation or untreated discharge—saw global coverage climb from 48% in 2015 to 58% in 2024, with 1.2 billion people gaining access.^[62] By 2022, this stood at 57%, leaving 3.4 billion without such services, predominantly in rural and low-income contexts where shared or unimproved facilities prevail.^[63] Rural gains outpaced urban ones, but overall rates remain half those of drinking water, underscoring persistent challenges in wastewater treatment and disposal infrastructure.^[61] Regionally, disparities are stark, with Europe and Northern America achieving over 94% coverage for safely managed drinking water by 2022, compared to sub-Saharan Africa, where urban coverage reached only 54% and overall rates hovered below 60%, hampered by arid conditions, conflict, and limited investment.^[64]^[65] Southern Asia recorded faster gains, driven by large-scale programs in countries like India, lifting drinking water access from around 60% to over 70% in some estimates, though sanitation lags at under 50% due to cultural and density factors.^[63] Latin America and the Caribbean fared better intermediately, with drinking water nearing 80% and sanitation around 60-70% by 2022, benefiting from established utilities but strained by inequality and informal settlements.^[63] These trends, tracked via household surveys by the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, reveal that while absolute numbers improved, per capita progress slowed in high-burden regions due to demographic pressures and uneven aid distribution.^[66]

Achievements in Specific Metrics

Global coverage of safely managed drinking water services under target 6.1 rose from 68 percent of the population in 2015 to 74 percent in 2024, providing access to an additional 961 million people.^[4] This progress reflects expanded infrastructure in rural and urban areas, though disparities persist between regions, with sub-Saharan Africa lagging at around 40 percent coverage.^[5] For safely managed sanitation services under target 6.2, coverage increased from 48 percent in 2015 to 58 percent in 2024, benefiting 1.2 billion more individuals through improved facilities and reduced open defecation.^[4] Basic handwashing facilities with soap and water at home advanced from 52 percent to higher levels, contributing to hygiene gains amid ongoing challenges in densely populated low-income settings.^[67] Water-use efficiency, measured by indicator 6.4.1, improved globally by 23 percent between 2015 and 2022, driven primarily by economic growth in manufacturing and agricultural sectors that decoupled water withdrawals from value added.^[36] Implementation of integrated water resources management under target 6.5 reached a global average of 54 percent by recent assessments, up from 49 percent in 2017, indicating modest advancements in policy coordination and transboundary agreements.^[1] Progress on wastewater treatment for target 6.3 shows that the proportion of untreated wastewater discharged has declined in monitored regions, with some countries achieving over 50 percent treatment rates through upgraded facilities, though comprehensive global data remains limited.^[3] These metrics highlight incremental gains from targeted investments, yet fall short of the exponential acceleration required for universal access by 2030.^[68]

Shortfalls and Projection Failures

The United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024 assesses SDG 6 as off-track, with global progress rates insufficient to achieve universal access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene by 2030. As of 2022, 2.2 billion people—nearly 28 percent of the global population—lacked safely managed drinking water services, while 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation and 1.7 billion basic handwashing facilities.^[5]^[20] At prevailing annual improvement rates averaging less than 1 percent since 2000, projections indicate that approximately 1.6 billion individuals will still lack safe drinking water and 2.8 billion safe sanitation by the target year, falling short of the zero-access goal.^[55]^[69] ![Share of the population using safely managed drinking water, OWID.svg.png][center] Target-specific shortfalls exacerbate these gaps: progress on safely managed drinking water has decelerated in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, where population growth outpaces infrastructure expansion, leaving open defecation practices entrenched for over 400 million people.^[3] Integrated water resources management implementation has advanced minimally, rising from 49 percent of countries in 2017 to 57 percent by 2022, far below the levels required for sustainable withdrawal and efficiency under targets 6.4 and 6.5.^[5] Wastewater treatment remains inadequate, with only about 60 percent of global wastewater safely treated before discharge, contributing to ecosystem degradation and failure to protect water-related biodiversity as per target 6.6.^[5] Initial 2015 projections for SDG 6, embedded in the 2030 Agenda, anticipated linear scaling of pre-existing Millennium Development Goal gains, but empirical trajectories reveal overoptimism, as conflict disruptions, urbanization pressures, and investment shortfalls—averaging under 0.2 percent of GDP in low-income countries—have halved expected acceleration.^[6] Mid-term evaluations, including the 2023 UN-Water report, confirm the need for a fourfold increase in progress rates to approximate targets, a threshold unmet due to stagnant donor commitments and domestic policy inertia in water-scarce regions.^[6]^[20] These failures underscore systemic underestimation of causal barriers, rendering 2030 universality unattainable without paradigm shifts in resource allocation.^[70]

Governance and Implementation Barriers

Institutional and Policy Failures

Institutional fragmentation remains a primary barrier to effective water and sanitation governance under SDG 6, with overlapping mandates among agencies leading to duplicated efforts and accountability gaps. In many developing countries, water management involves multiple ministries and subnational entities without clear delineation of responsibilities, resulting in inefficient resource allocation and delayed project execution. For instance, coordination failures have contributed to persistent high non-revenue water losses, estimated at 126 billion cubic meters annually worldwide, equating to economic costs of USD 39 billion, as utilities struggle with leakages and unmetered supply due to weak regulatory oversight.^[6] These structural issues are compounded by insufficient institutional capacity, including shortages of technical expertise and short leadership tenures—such as average CEO terms of 18 months in some utilities—which undermine strategic planning and continuity.^[6] Policy shortcomings exacerbate these institutional weaknesses by prioritizing ambitious targets over feasible implementation mechanisms, often disconnecting global SDG frameworks from local contexts. Policies frequently emphasize capital investments in infrastructure while neglecting operations and maintenance, with projections indicating that operation and maintenance costs will surpass capital expenditures by a factor of 1.6 by 2029, straining already limited budgets.^[6] In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, national water policies have failed to enforce standards consistently, leading to uneven service delivery; for example, urban areas receive disproportionate funding compared to rural regions, perpetuating access disparities where 30% of the global population still lacks safely managed drinking water as of 2023.^[6] Moreover, the top-down nature of SDG-aligned policies overlooks subnational governance variations, creating contradictions when local realities—such as varying administrative capacities—clash with uniform indicators, as evidenced in case studies from Latin America and Asia where decentralized management has faltered without adaptive local regulations.^[59] Specific policy and institutional lapses have amplified vulnerabilities to shocks, as seen in Pakistan's 2022 floods, where inadequate disaster preparedness policies and fragmented early warning systems worsened impacts on water infrastructure, displacing millions and contaminating supplies.^[6] Similarly, Libya's 2023 dam collapse, triggered by neglect in maintenance protocols amid institutional instability, highlighted decades of policy inaction on aging infrastructure, resulting in over 4,000 deaths and widespread sanitation breakdowns.^[6] These failures underscore a broader misgovernance pattern, where inconsistent enforcement and lack of stakeholder collaboration deter private investment, widening the funding gap estimated at USD 30 billion to USD 1.1 trillion annually for SDG 6 fulfillment.^[6] Without reforms to streamline institutions and align policies with evidence-based, context-specific strategies, projections indicate that universal access targets by 2030 remain unattainable, perpetuating reliance on emergency responses over sustainable systems.^[71]

Corruption and Mismanagement in Developing Contexts

In developing countries, corruption in the water and sanitation sector manifests primarily through procurement irregularities, bribery for connections, and embezzlement of project funds, resulting in substandard infrastructure and delayed service delivery that impede SDG 6 targets.^[72] According to estimates from the World Bank, 20 to 40 percent of public finances allocated globally to the water sector, including in Africa and Asia, are lost to corruption and dishonest practices, exacerbating shortages in safe drinking water and sanitation facilities.^[73] These losses disproportionately affect rural and low-income populations, as funds intended for boreholes, treatment plants, and piped systems are diverted, leading to incomplete projects or facilities that fail prematurely due to inferior materials selected via kickback schemes.^[74] Mismanagement compounds these issues through weak oversight and elite capture, where political elites prioritize urban or connected areas over underserved regions, as documented in South Asian water utilities where corrupt behaviors inflate costs by up to 30 percent and reduce service coverage.^[75] In Nigeria, for instance, chronic corruption within state water agencies has contributed to epileptic power supply disruptions in treatment operations and poor maintenance of distribution networks, stalling progress on universal access despite international aid inflows.^[76] Transparency International reports highlight how such practices in Latin America force citizens to pay unofficial bribes for basic access, while falsified water quality inspections allow contaminated supplies to persist, directly undermining health-related SDG 6 indicators.^[77]^[78] Efforts to mitigate these barriers, such as integrity pacts in procurement, have shown limited success without independent audits, as grand corruption in utility contracts often involves collusion between officials and contractors, per World Bank analyses of African and Asian projects.^[79] Overall, these governance failures explain persistent shortfalls in SDG 6 metrics, with corruption estimated to generate "water poverty" by reducing service availability and quality, particularly for the poorest households who lack bargaining power against petty extortion.^[74]

Demographic and Urbanization Pressures

Rapid population growth exacerbates pressures on water resources essential to SDG 6, as larger populations increase total demand for freshwater withdrawals and sanitation infrastructure. The global population, which stood at approximately 7.8 billion in 2020, is projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, with nearly all growth occurring in developing regions where water infrastructure is already strained.^[80]^[81] This demographic expansion correlates directly with heightened water withdrawals, outpacing improvements in per capita access in many areas and contributing to persistent absolute numbers of people—around 2.2 billion in 2024—lacking safely managed drinking water despite proportional gains since 2015.^[80]^[82] Urbanization intensifies these challenges by concentrating population density in cities, where demand surges without commensurate expansion of supply systems. The global urban population facing water scarcity is expected to double from 930 million in 2016 to between 1.7 and 2.4 billion by 2050, driven by migration to urban centers in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.^[20] In these regions, unplanned urban expansion often results in informal settlements or slums, where up to 40% of new urban dwellers reside without access to piped water or adequate sanitation, leading to reliance on informal vendors and heightened risks of contamination.^[83]^[84] Such settlements amplify sanitation deficits, with untreated wastewater overwhelming limited facilities and contributing to groundwater depletion and disease vectors in densely packed areas.^[85] These pressures manifest regionally with acute severity in low-income countries, where population growth rates exceed 2% annually and urban infrastructure lags decades behind needs. In Africa, for instance, 63% of the population lacks basic sanitation services amid rapid urbanization, while in South Asia, combined demographic and urban trends have intensified water quality degradation through industrial effluents and untreated sewage.^[86]^[87] Projections indicate that without adaptive measures, these dynamics could leave nearly 6 billion people experiencing clean water scarcity by 2050, underscoring how demographic and urban shifts offset infrastructural advancements and hinder SDG 6 targets.^[88]^[80]

Environmental and External Challenges

Climate Variability Impacts

Climate variability, including shifts in precipitation patterns, intensified droughts, and more frequent floods, disrupts the hydrological cycle essential for clean water provision and sanitation under SDG 6. These changes reduce freshwater availability, degrade water quality, and damage infrastructure, particularly in developing regions where baseline access is limited. Globally, approximately 4 billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least one month per year, a condition exacerbated by drought frequency that has increased in areas like the Mediterranean and sub-Saharan Africa.^[89] Droughts diminish surface and groundwater recharge, leading to depleted sources and heightened competition for remaining supplies. In East Africa, the 2017 drought was twice as likely due to anthropogenic warming, severely curtailing water access for millions reliant on rain-fed systems. Empirical assessments in Nepal, a representative developing context, show 63% of community water sources depleted and 5% fully dried up amid prolonged dry spells between 1994 and 2024, rendering 68% of taps only partially functional. Such reductions strain sanitation efforts, as low water volumes hinder hygiene practices and increase health risks from inadequate flushing.^[89]^[90] Floods, conversely, overwhelm sanitation systems and contaminate water bodies through overflows and sediment-laden runoff. In Bangladesh, the 2017 floods—doubled in probability by climate influences—affected over 220,000 hectares of land, with associated inundation leading to widespread fecal contamination of groundwater and surface sources. Globally, heavy precipitation events have increased for 709 million people, correlating with elevated incidences of waterborne diseases; for example, floods elevate diarrhea risk by 22% in affected Chinese populations. Infrastructure vulnerability is acute in low-income settings, where economic damages from floods could rise 4–5 times under 4°C warming compared to 1.5°C scenarios.^[89] Water quality deteriorates under both extremes: droughts concentrate pollutants, while floods introduce turbidity and pathogens, with 10% of the global population facing quality issues tied to weather events from 2000–2010. In sanitation terms, floods and sea-level interactions threaten low-lying areas, projecting up to 2.2 million additional E. coli cases in Bangladesh by 2100 under moderate warming. These dynamics could yield 48,000 extra annual child deaths from diarrhea by 2030 without adaptive measures. In sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where 2 billion lack safely managed drinking water and 771 million lack basic sanitation as of 2020, such variability amplifies vulnerabilities, with one in four people already denied safe water access amid intensifying events.^[89]^[20] Projections indicate escalating risks, with a potential 40% global freshwater shortfall by 2030 and doubled agricultural drought likelihood at 1.5°C warming in vulnerable regions. Africa, in particular, confronts severe water stress by 2025 from lingering droughts and devastating floods, underscoring the need for resilient, localized adaptations over generalized targets. While models carry uncertainties in precipitation forecasts—up to 40% variability at higher warming levels—observed trends confirm causal links between variability and SDG 6 shortfalls in resource-poor contexts.^[20]^[89]^[91]

Resource Overexploitation and Ecosystem Degradation

Overexploitation of groundwater resources has intensified water scarcity, undermining efforts to achieve universal access to clean water under SDG 6. Globally, groundwater levels in approximately 30% of monitored aquifers have shown accelerated declines since 2000, with 21 out of 37 major aquifers being depleted faster than they can recharge.^[92]^[93] Per capita groundwater use has risen by 22.6% from 124 cubic meters in 1950 to 152 cubic meters in 2021, driven primarily by agricultural irrigation and urban demands in arid regions.^[94] This depletion reduces reliable sources for drinking water and sanitation infrastructure, particularly in South Asia and the Middle East, where aquifer drawdown has led to well failures and saline intrusion, contaminating freshwater supplies.^[95] Ecosystem degradation, including wetland loss and deforestation, further compromises water quality and availability by diminishing natural filtration and regulation processes. Wetlands, which historically filtered pollutants and moderated floods, have been reduced by over 90% in regions like California, resulting in elevated sedimentation, nutrient overloads, and metal contamination in downstream waters.^[96]^[97] Deforestation exacerbates this by increasing soil erosion and runoff, raising turbidity and pollutant levels in rivers and reservoirs; for instance, up to 80% forest loss in catchments can degrade reservoir water quality through heightened organic matter and nutrient inflows.^[98]^[99] In half of the world's countries, freshwater ecosystems such as rivers, lakes, and aquifers are degraded, amplifying pollution persistence and hindering sanitation efficacy by overloading treatment systems.^[100] These pressures interact causally: overexploitation often precedes ecosystem damage, as excessive pumping alters hydrological flows and promotes land subsidence, while degraded ecosystems reduce recharge rates, perpetuating scarcity cycles. In developing contexts, this has stalled SDG 6 progress, with degraded systems contributing to persistent contamination risks despite infrastructure investments.^[6] Empirical assessments indicate that without addressing these drivers—such as through reduced extraction and habitat restoration—water-related targets will remain unmet, as natural buffers against pollution and drought diminish.^[101]

Pandemic and Crisis Disruptions

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6 by diverting financial and human resources from routine water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure development to immediate pandemic response efforts, including hand hygiene promotion and wastewater monitoring for viral detection.^[102] Lockdowns and mobility restrictions halted maintenance activities and supply chains for spare parts and materials, leading to operational challenges such as reduced on-site workforce capacity— for instance, one utility in Rwanda cut staff from 500 to 170 to enforce social distancing— and increased health risks for essential WASH workers.^[103] These disruptions contributed to a projected 7% decline in capital expenditures for the sector in 2020, delaying new projects and exacerbating vulnerabilities in densely populated informal settlements where inadequate sanitation heightened outbreak risks.^[103] Revenue shortfalls further compounded setbacks, with utilities experiencing an average 15% drop in collections due to emergency billing suspensions and economic hardships, straining the ability to sustain services amid heightened domestic water demand for hygiene practices.^[103] At the pandemic's outset, approximately 3 in 10 people globally lacked access to soap and water at home for handwashing, underscoring pre-existing gaps that impeded containment measures and stalled broader SDG 6 advancements.^[104] In educational settings, where one in two schools lacked basic WASH services, global closures disrupted monitoring and upgrades, with only 58% of schools having basic hygiene facilities by 2021, necessitating accelerated investments to recover lost momentum.^[105] Overall, these effects risked derailing the trajectory toward universal access by 2030, as resource reallocation prioritized short-term survival over long-term infrastructure resilience.^[103] Beyond pandemics, armed conflicts and humanitarian crises have inflicted acute damage on WASH systems, destroying treatment facilities, polluting groundwater sources, and restricting access to safe water points for millions in affected regions.^[106] In protracted conflicts, such as those in Ukraine and Gaza, infrastructure breakdowns have led to widespread service interruptions, with populations in fragile, conflict, and violence-affected settings—comprising 23% of the global total—facing heightened barriers to SDG 6 targets due to targeted attacks, displacement, and aid diversion.^[107] ^[108] These disruptions not only reverse incremental gains in sanitation coverage but also amplify health risks through contamination and inadequate hygiene, demanding specialized humanitarian interventions that compete with developmental funding for sustainable progress.^[109] Natural disasters, often compounding crises, similarly overwhelm under-resourced systems, as seen in flood-damaged networks that hinder equitable service recovery and perpetuate cycles of vulnerability in low-income contexts.^[20]

Criticisms and Alternative Perspectives

Overreliance on Centralized Planning

The pursuit of SDG 6 has predominantly relied on centralized planning mechanisms, wherein national governments formulate policies and allocate resources in alignment with UN-prescribed targets and indicators, often prioritizing uniform global metrics over context-specific adaptations.^[110] This top-down structure assumes that higher-level authorities possess sufficient information to direct water and sanitation interventions effectively across diverse locales, yet it frequently encounters the knowledge problem wherein dispersed, tacit local insights—such as community-specific usage patterns, terrain variations, and cultural practices—cannot be adequately centralized or utilized.^[111] Hayek's analysis of economic coordination highlights how such planning falters due to the impossibility of aggregating fragmented knowledge in real time, a dynamic equally applicable to resource-intensive sectors like water management where misallocations lead to inefficiencies.^[111] Empirical assessments of water governance in developing contexts reveal that centralized approaches exacerbate institutional challenges, including mismatched funding based on outdated population data and reluctance among stakeholders to collaborate beyond siloed bureaucracies.^[6]^[112] For example, in regions pursuing SDG 6 compliance, top-down policymaking has been undermined by partisan influences, administrative inertia, and regulatory gaps that hinder responsive implementation at the grassroots level.^[59] These shortcomings contribute to stalled progress, as evidenced by the UN's acknowledgment that global efforts remain off track, with only partial advancements in safely managed water services despite billions in pledged financing.^[113] Quantitative reviews of sanitation initiatives further demonstrate the comparative underperformance of centralized models, where large-scale, government-driven programs yield lower gains in access compared to bottom-up alternatives that leverage community-led decision-making.^[114] Exploratory analyses indicate that decentralized strategies, by incorporating local participation, achieve higher effectiveness in expanding water and sanitation coverage, often at reduced systemic risk from failures in expansive infrastructure networks.^[114]^[115] Overreliance on central planning thus perpetuates a cycle of unmet targets, as seen in persistent gaps in wastewater treatment and equitable access, underscoring the need for hybrid models that devolve authority to mitigate these inherent coordination deficits.^[116]^[112]

Efficacy of UN-Led Metrics and Reporting

The WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) serves as the primary UN-led mechanism for tracking progress on SDG 6 targets related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, relying on household surveys, censuses, and administrative data from national sources to generate global estimates.^[66] These metrics classify services into ladders such as "safely managed," "basic," and "limited," with JMP estimates indicating global coverage of safely managed drinking water rose from 61% in 2000 to 73% in 2022, and safely managed sanitation from an estimated low base to 54% by 2022.^[64] However, the efficacy of this system is undermined by persistent data quality challenges, including incompleteness, outdated information, and lack of verification, which affect over half of SDG indicators in regions like Asia-Pacific and lead to biased progress assessments.^[54] Significant discrepancies between national government reports and JMP estimates highlight reliability issues, particularly for sanitation coverage in developing countries. In Sub-Saharan Africa, government figures often exceed JMP estimates, with statistical tests confirming meaningful differences not attributable to definitional leniency but rather to variations in data sources, collection quality, and analytical methods—suggesting potential overreporting to align with political or funding incentives.^[117] For instance, in Tanzania, national data reported higher sanitation access than JMP's 77% improved facilities estimate, reflecting broader patterns where self-reported administrative data lacks independent validation.^[59] Studies in countries like Malawi further indicate that self-reported measures for water and sanitation access overestimate functionality, as they fail to capture actual service quality or usage, necessitating alternatives like observational verification for accuracy.^[118] These limitations stem from low institutional capacity in many developing nations, where nearly 60% of UN member states report insufficient data for comprehensive SDG 6 monitoring, compounded by reliance on national submissions without robust ground-truthing. Global aggregation overlooks subnational governance realities, such as local mismanagement or uneven implementation, resulting in metrics that prioritize aspirational targets over causal drivers of failure.^[59] Consequently, while JMP reporting facilitates cross-country comparisons, its efficacy in driving targeted interventions is reduced, as incomplete datasets obscure true bottlenecks and enable optimistic narratives despite UN acknowledgments that current progress rates must accelerate 6- to 16-fold in low-income countries to meet 2030 goals.^[63] Enhanced verification, disaggregated local data, and integration of non-traditional sources like satellite monitoring could mitigate these flaws, but systemic biases toward unverified national inputs persist.^[54]

Market-Oriented and Decentralized Alternatives

Market-oriented approaches to water and sanitation emphasize price signals, private investment, and competition to incentivize efficient resource use and service delivery, contrasting with centralized planning by relying on voluntary exchanges and local entrepreneurship. Proponents contend that such mechanisms align individual incentives with conservation and innovation, as users face the full costs of consumption and providers compete on quality and affordability.^[119] Empirical evidence from water markets in the U.S. semiarid West demonstrates that tradable water rights facilitate reallocation to higher-value uses, reducing overall consumption by 10-20% in some basins through voluntary transfers.^[120] Establishing secure property rights in water resources has been shown to curb overextraction of common-pool assets, with a study of Chilean irrigation districts finding that formalized rights reduced groundwater overuse by enabling efficient trading and investment in maintenance.^[119] In developing contexts, market-based sanitation programs, such as those promoting affordable household toilets through local suppliers, have scaled access rapidly; for instance, Population Services International reported sales of 760,000 units across 13 countries by 2025, driven by demand-responsive financing rather than subsidies alone.^[121] These models prioritize aspirational, low-cost products, achieving uptake rates up to 30% higher than traditional aid-driven efforts in rural areas.^[122] Decentralized wastewater treatment systems, often managed by local entities or private operators, offer flexibility for remote or urban fringe areas where centralized infrastructure proves costly or infeasible. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency case studies highlight successes in clustered systems serving small communities, where on-site technologies like advanced septic variants have lowered treatment costs by 40-60% compared to piped networks and improved effluent quality through tailored monitoring.^[123] In Kenya and similar settings, privatization of water kiosks and small-scale providers has expanded access, with a World Bank analysis of privatized services in Argentina linking the shift to an 8% drop in child mortality from waterborne diseases between 1990 and 2000, attributed to expanded coverage and maintenance incentives.^[124] However, outcomes depend on regulatory frameworks enforcing competition and accountability, as evidenced by mixed results in Colombia where welfare gains occurred primarily in municipalities with strong oversight.^[125] Private sector involvement in sanitation innovation, such as container-based systems or modular treatment units, further exemplifies decentralization by enabling community-level deployment without reliance on national grids. Firms like Sanivation have integrated waste collection, treatment, and reuse in Kenya's slums, converting fecal sludge into fertilizer sold locally, which recoups costs and reduces environmental discharge by up to 90% in pilot sites.^[126] These alternatives underscore causal links between incentivized local action and measurable gains in access and hygiene, though scalability requires addressing barriers like initial capital access for small operators.^[127]

Interlinkages and Broader Implications

Connections to Other SDGs

Access to clean water and sanitation under SDG 6 supports SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by reducing the incidence of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, which causes approximately 485,000 deaths annually among children under five, primarily in low-income regions with inadequate sanitation. Empirical analyses confirm synergies, with improved water and sanitation infrastructure correlating with lower child mortality rates and better overall health outcomes across 193 countries from 2000 to 2015.^[128]^[129] SDG 6 interlinks with SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) through irrigation and agricultural water use, where efficient water management enhances crop yields and food security; studies identify causal dependencies, noting that water scarcity exacerbates hunger in regions reliant on rain-fed agriculture, affecting over 2.4 billion people as of 2022. Progress in SDG 6 targets, such as sustainable withdrawal and efficiency (6.4), directly bolsters SDG 2 targets on sustainable agriculture by mitigating drought impacts on food production.^[130]^[131] Connections to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) arise from water's role in hydropower generation, which supplied 16.2% of global electricity in 2022, and in thermal power plant cooling, where competing demands can create trade-offs; transboundary river basin management reveals both synergies in renewable energy expansion and conflicts over resource allocation. Similarly, SDG 6 aids SDG 13 (Climate Action) by enabling adaptive water infrastructure against variability, with integrated approaches reducing vulnerability in 80% of assessed climate-sensitive targets.^[132]^[133] Urban water systems under SDG 6 align with SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), as safely managed services in cities prevent flooding and support resilient infrastructure; data from 2022 shows that 2.2 billion people lack safely managed drinking water, disproportionately impacting urban poor. Ecosystem protection in SDG 6, including wastewater treatment (target 6.3), synergizes with SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) by preserving freshwater habitats, with analyses indicating positive interactions for 77% of related biodiversity targets, though pollution from untreated effluents poses ongoing trade-offs.^[129]^[134]

Economic Costs and Incentives

Achieving the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6 requires substantial global investment, estimated at approximately $114 billion annually through 2030, according to a World Bank analysis covering capital expenditures for infrastructure such as piped networks and treatment facilities, operational costs, and maintenance.^[135] This figure represents roughly three times current spending levels in developing countries, with low-income nations bearing the highest per capita burdens due to extensive gaps in basic services; for instance, capital costs for rural sanitation and water supply can exceed operational expenses by factors of 2-3 in underserved regions.^[136] These estimates exclude indirect costs like those from environmental restoration or climate adaptation, potentially understating totals amid rising demands from population growth and urbanization.^[137] Economic incentives for SDG 6 investments stem primarily from quantified returns on health and productivity gains, with World Health Organization and UNICEF analyses indicating that every $1 invested yields $4.30 in benefits through averted medical expenses, reduced mortality, and enhanced workforce participation.^[138] Sanitation-focused studies project even higher multiples, up to $9 per dollar, by curbing disease burdens like diarrheal illnesses that impose annual global losses exceeding $200 billion in productivity.^[139] However, these projections assume efficient implementation, which empirical evidence challenges; corruption in procurement and service delivery can inflate connection costs by up to 30% and divert funds, eroding net returns in corrupt-prone environments common in low-governance contexts.^[140] Aid inflows for WASH, while intended to bridge gaps, often exhibit inefficiencies, with perceived corruption levels correlating to diminished impacts on access improvements.^[141] To align incentives with sustainability, policies emphasizing cost-recovery mechanisms—such as volumetric water pricing and user tariffs—promote conservation and self-financing, countering tendencies toward overuse under subsidized or free provision models that strain resources and infrastructure longevity.^[142] Public-private partnerships have demonstrated viability in scaling infrastructure where governments lack capacity, potentially mobilizing up to $45 billion yearly from private sources, though regulatory frameworks must mitigate risks of inequitable access or profit-driven neglect of unprofitable rural areas.^[143] Centralized funding approaches, however, face criticism for misallocating resources due to weak accountability, underscoring the need for decentralized, market-oriented reforms to enhance economic efficiency over top-down mandates.^[6]

Long-Term Sustainability Debates

Projections indicate that global water demand will rise by approximately 55% by 2050, driven primarily by population growth, urbanization, and agricultural expansion, intensifying pressure on finite freshwater resources and challenging the long-term viability of universal access under SDG 6.^[144] This escalation is expected to leave at least one in four people facing recurring water shortages, with urban populations in water-scarce regions potentially doubling to 1.7–2.4 billion individuals.^[109] ^[145] Debates persist on whether SDG 6's emphasis on expanded access adequately accounts for these dynamics, as critics highlight that short-term infrastructure gains may mask underlying overexploitation, where withdrawal rates already exceed natural recharge in many basins.^[6] Groundwater depletion represents a core flashpoint in these discussions, with global excess withdrawal over recharge forecasted to reach 887 cubic kilometers by 2050—61% higher than 2021 levels—and annual extraction rates climbing to around 1,250 cubic kilometers.^[146] ^[147] As many as 1.8 billion people could reside in areas of full or near-total groundwater depletion by mid-century, particularly in regions reliant on non-renewable aquifers for irrigation and drinking supplies.^[148] Proponents of SDG 6 argue for integrated management and recharge initiatives to mitigate this, yet skeptics contend that without enforceable limits on extraction—often tied to subsidized agriculture—such measures fail to reverse trends, as evidenced by ongoing declines in major aquifers despite policy frameworks.^[149] This raises questions about the sustainability of sanitation targets (SDG 6.2), which depend on stable water volumes for treatment and distribution. Wastewater management further fuels debates, as only about 60% of reported global flows receive safe treatment (at least secondary level), leaving vast untreated volumes to pollute surface and groundwater sources.^[1] Challenges include inadequate infrastructure capacity and the heterogeneity of pollutants from industrial and domestic sources, complicating scalable, cost-effective reuse essential for closing water loops in scarcity-prone areas.^[150] ^[6] While SDG 6.3 aims to halve untreated wastewater by 2030, projections of rising urban generation—coupled with climate-induced variability—suggest persistent risks to ecosystem integrity and human health, prompting arguments for prioritizing advanced technologies like membrane bioreactors over expansive but maintenance-vulnerable centralized systems.^[7] Institutional and governance shortcomings amplify these concerns, with numerous rural and peri-urban schemes collapsing post-installation due to funding shortfalls, poor operation, and weak local accountability, undermining long-term service delivery.^[151] In developing contexts, over-extraction and pollution persist amid rapid demographic shifts, as seen in India's struggles with groundwater overuse despite SDG-aligned policies.^[116] Debates contrast top-down UN metrics, which track access but underemphasize depletion rates, against calls for decentralized, incentive-based approaches—such as volumetric pricing—to foster conservation and innovation, though implementation barriers in low-capacity settings remain unresolved.^[6] Overall, while technological optimism posits desalination and recycling as pathways, empirical trends in resource drawdown indicate that SDG 6's ambitions may strain against biophysical limits absent transformative shifts in usage patterns.

References

[1]
Goal 6 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
[2]
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation - The Global Goals
Goal 6 aims to ensure sustainable water and sanitation for all, including safe drinking water, ending open defecation, and improving water quality.
[3]
Home | SDG 6 Data
SDG 6 seeks to ensure safe drinking water and sanitation for all, focusing on the sustainable management of water resources, wastewater and ecosystems.Indicator 6.1.1 · Background and objectives · Snapshots · Maps
[4]
Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 ...
Aug 25, 2025 · Between 2015 and 2024, 961million people gained access to safely managed drinking water services, increasing global coverage from 68% to 74%.
[5]
SDG Report 2024 Goal 6 - United Nations Statistics Division
Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a sixfold increase in current rates of progress for safely managed drinking water, a fivefold increase for ...
[6]
Water woes: the institutional challenges in achieving SDG 6
Nov 20, 2023 · These issues extend beyond mere statistics and observations; they underline broken commitments, poor governance, and reluctance to work together ...
[7]
Attainment of water and sanitation goals: a review and agenda for ...
Aug 23, 2022 · Challenges for the attainment of SDG 6 Several studies across the globe have identified the challenges for access to safe and clean water; ...
[8]
[PDF] United Nations Water Conference, 1977 (Resolutions) - IELRC.ORG
United Nations Water Conference - Resolutions in Report of the United Nations Water Conference, Mar del Plata, 14-25 March 1977 (United. Nations publication ...<|separator|>
[9]
[PDF] Mar del Plata Action Plan - International Water Law Project
WATER CONFERENCE. Mar del Plata, 14-25 March 1977. Ma. 1977 kwacht. G 1014. UNITED NATIONS. New York, 1977. E/CONF.70/29. Page 2. NOTE. Symbols of United ...
[10]
Proclamation of the International Drinking Water Supply and ...
Nov 10, 1980 · 1. Proclaims the period 1981-1990 as the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade, during which Member States will assume a ...
[11]
The International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade - IRC
Jan 1, 1992 · The goal of the International Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (IDWSSD) (1981-1990) was to improve and expand water supply and ...
[12]
[PDF] The Dublin Statement on Water and Sustainable Development, 1992
The Conference Report sets out recommendations for action at local, national, and international levels, based on four guiding principles. Principle No. 1 - ...
[13]
[PDF] Dublin-Rio Principles
The Dublin Statement, which included four principles on water, was submitted to the UNCED in Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992, also known as The Earth Summit.
[14]
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
Feb 19, 2018 · Target 7C: By 2015, halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. The world has now ...
[15]
United Nations sustainable development agenda
On 1 January 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development officially came into force.
[16]
About the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - Cepal
The 2030 Agenda is the result of the broadest and most participatory consultation process in the history of the United Nations and represents the emerging ...
[17]
Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable ...
This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom.
[18]
[PDF] A/RES/70/1 Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for ... - UN.org.
Oct 21, 2015 · Preamble. This Agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It also seeks to strengthen universal peace in larger freedom.
[19]
Unanimously Adopting Historic Sustainable Development Goals ...
Sep 25, 2015 · 25 September 2015. Unanimously Adopting Historic Sustainable Development Goals, General Assembly Shapes Global Outlook for Prosperity, Peace.
[20]
Goal 6: Water and Sanitation - United Nations Sustainable ...
Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all ... Access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene is the most basic human need for health and well-being.
[21]
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 6) | United Nations ... - Unric
Goal 6: Worldwide, one in three people do not have access to safe drinking water, and more than 673 million people still practice open defecation.
[22]
[PDF] Achieving the UN Agenda 2030: Overall actions for the successful ...
The 2030 Agenda contains an implementation framework of 17 Sustainable. Development Goals (SDGs), 169 targets and 244 indicators (93 of which are environment- ...
[23]
Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation - UN Environment Programme
Mar 25, 2025 · Goal 6: Clean Water and Sanitation · Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all · Goal 6 and the environment.
[24]
Curbing water risk with the Sustainable Development Goal 6 index
Oct 10, 2021 · The establishment of SDG 6—Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all—articulates the augmented concerns ...Missing: underpinnings | Show results with:underpinnings
[25]
https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal6
[26]
SDG Indicators - United Nations Statistics Division
Goal 6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all. Target 6.1: By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe ...Official list of global... · IAEG-SDGs · Metadata repository
[27]
[PDF] SDG indicator metadata - UN.org.
Sep 27, 2024 · Data release calendar (REL_CAL_POLICY). The SDG Progress Report and relevant data are published every two years since the publication of the.
[28]
Drinking water quality and the SDGs | npj Clean Water - Nature
Aug 24, 2020 · The indicator for SDG target 6.1, use of safely managed drinking water services (SMDW), seeks to address the limitations of previous monitoring ...
[29]
SDG Indicator 6.2.1 | Sustainable developments Goals - UNEP
Jun 27, 2025 · Definition: This indicator measures: (a) the proportion of the population using an improved sanitation facility that is not shared with other ...
[30]
Percentage of population using safely managed sanitation services ...
This indicator encompasses both people using basic sanitation services as well as those using safely managed sanitation services.
[31]
[PDF] Metadata on SDG Indicator 6.3.1 - United Nations Statistics Division
Apr 23, 2025 · Concepts: SDG indicator 6.3. 1 tracks the proportion of wastewater flows from domestic (households and services) and industrial economic ...
[32]
None
### Definition of Indicator 6.3.2: Proportion of Bodies of Water with Good Ambient Water Quality
[33]
Progress on Ambient Water Quality (SDG target 6.3)
SDG target 6.3 is: 'By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[34]
An evaluation of indicator 6.4.2 “Level of water stress” - PMC
Target 6.4 of the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) deals with the reduction of water scarcity. To monitor progress towards this target, ...Missing: achieving | Show results with:achieving
[35]
[PDF] The Sustainable Development Goals Extended Report 2025
Note: This unedited 'Extended Report' includes all indicator storyline contents as provided by the SDG indicator custodian agencies as of 30 April 2025.
[36]
6.4.1 - Change in water use efficiency over time| SDG Indicators ...
The global trend in water-use efficiency (WUE) has shown significant improvement, with a 23 percent increase between 2015 and 2022, mainly driven by economic ...
[37]
SDG Indicator 6.4.2 | Sustainable developments Goals - UNEP
Jun 27, 2025 · Related SDG Indicators:6.4.1 (Change in water-use efficiency over time), 6.1.1(Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water ...
[38]
SDG 6.5.1 Progress Report launched at World Water Week
Aug 28, 2024 · Findings show global progress towards IWRM implementation has increased from 49% in 2017 to 57% in 2023. But the world is not on track to reach ...
[39]
Reporting on SDG indicator 6.5.2 and under the Water Convention
May 15, 2025 · SDG target 6.5 calls for countries to “implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary ...
[40]
Mid-term status of SDG Indicator 6.5.1 and acceleration needs, with ...
Aug 28, 2024 · Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator 6.5. 1 – on the level of implementation of IWRM – is a useful proxy for measuring sustainable ...
[41]
Progress on Water-Related Ecosystems - Indicator | SDG 6 Data
Indicator 6.6.1 tracks changes over time in water-related ecosystems such as lakes, rivers, wetlands and mangroves, with the help of earth observations.
[42]
Progress on SDG 6 Indicators | UNEP - UN Environment Programme
Sep 2, 2021 · A key underlying message from these reports is that existing efforts to protect and restore water-related ecosystems must be urgently scaled up ...
[43]
Three SDG 6 indicator progress reports highlight degradation in ...
Oct 4, 2024 · The target being monitored under SDG 6.6 is “by 2020, protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, ...
[44]
Water- and sanitation-related ODA: Official development assistance ...
Amount of water- and sanitation-related official development assistance that is part of a government-coordinated spending plan
[45]
[PDF] The Sustainable Development Goals Extended Report 2023
Water use efficiency (WUE) rose from 17.4 USD/m3 in 2015 to 18.9 USD/m3 in 2020 worldwide, which represents a 9 percent efficiency increase.
[46]
Official development assistance (ODA) - OECD
Total ODA amounted to USD 212.1 billion, representing 0.33% of member countries' combined gross national income (GNI).
[47]
Global Water Security and Sanitation Partnership: Annual Report 2023
Nov 16, 2023 · As of 2022, 2.2 billion people lacked safely managed drinking water, 3.5 billion lacked access to safely managed sanitation, and 2 billion lacked access to ...
[48]
Official development assistance (ODA) 2023 final figures - OECD
Jan 16, 2025 · Official development assistance (ODA) from members of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) was at its highest level ever in 2023, at USD 223.3 billion.
[49]
How community participation in water and sanitation interventions ...
Dec 2, 2021 · This paper examines a range of WASH interventions including hardware interventions such as new latrines and water supply systems and their operation and ...
[50]
Community perceptions, participation, and satisfaction with existing ...
Jul 12, 2023 · The SDG Goal 6 feedback report in 2018 also measured the level at that communities participate in water resources planning and management. This ...
[51]
[PDF] SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation - UN Statistics Division
Jul 7, 2023 · Despite progress, 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water services, 3.5 billion lacked safely managed sanitation ...
[52]
SDG Indicators - United Nations Statistics Division - UN.org.
The SDG indicator framework is a global framework for the 2030 Agenda, with 234 unique indicators (251 total, some repeating) and is refined annually.<|control11|><|separator|>
[53]
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and ...
Jul 18, 2023 · Sustainable Development Goal 6 is to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, according to the United Nations.
[54]
Critical Data Challenges in Measuring the Performance of ...
Jul 27, 2023 · Because poor-quality, outdated, and incomplete data will lead to inaccurate SDG findings, insufficient data are a significant obstacle in ...
[55]
Sustainable development goal 6 monitoring through statistical ...
Among these, SDG 6 focuses on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, encompassing eight targets and 11 indicators ...
[56]
Mid-term Status on SDG 6 Indicators: 6.3.2, 6.5.1, & 6.6.1 (2024)
Aug 27, 2024 · These three mid-terms status reports for SDG 6 indicators: 6.3.2, 6.5.1, and 6.6.1 find that SDG 6 is alarmingly off-track and action needs to be accelerated.Sdg 6.3. 2 Visual Summary · Sdg 6.5. 1 Visual Summary · Sdg 6.6. 1 Visual Summary<|separator|>
[57]
Monitoring Water-Related Ecosystems with Earth Observation Data ...
May 20, 2020 · Lack of national data on water-related ecosystems is a major challenge to achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 targets by 2030 ...
[58]
[PDF] Progress and Prospect on Monitoring and Evaluation of United ...
Aug 20, 2021 · The study summarizes two problems in the global SDG 6 monitoring and evaluation:1) There is still a lack of sustainably provided high-precision ...
[59]
Reconciling global aspirations and local realities: Challenges facing ...
This article assesses governance challenges at the local level associated with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, which pledges to ensure sustainable water ...
[60]
Access to drinking water - UNICEF DATA
Aug 25, 2025 · Between 2015 and 2024, 961 million people gained access to safely managed drinking water services, raising global coverage from 68% to 74%.
[61]
2.4 billion people lived in water-stressed countries - — SDG Indicators
Access to drinking water, sanitation and hygiene improved significantly in rural areas, but stagnated or decreased in urban areas.
[62]
Sanitation Statistics - UNICEF DATA
Between 2015 and 2024, 1.2 billion people gained access to safely managed sanitation services, raising global coverage from 48% to 58%. ... 2015 and 2024 ...Sdg Ladder For Sanitation... · Water, Sanitation & Hygiene... · Notes On The Data
[63]
Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000 ...
Jul 5, 2023 · This report presents updated national, regional and global estimates for WASH in households for the period 2000 to 2022, and has a special focus on gender and ...
[64]
Proportion of population using safely managed drinking-water ...
No estimates are reported if less than 30 per cent of the population in the region or world are covered. ... global indicator for 'safely managed drinking water ...
[65]
People using safely managed drinking water services, urban (% of ...
Jul 6, 2023 · WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme ( JMP ) for Water Supply ... Sub-Saharan Africa. 2022. 54. Sub-Saharan Africa (excluding high income).
[66]
Home | JMP
The custodian of global data on Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH). Search the site for data on households, schools, or health facilities.Data · About the JMP · Sanitation · Drinking water
[67]
1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water
Aug 26, 2025 · A new report: Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: special focus on inequalities –launched by WHO and UNICEF ...Missing: 6 | Show results with:6
[68]
[PDF] The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2024
It finds that only 17 per cent of the SDG targets are on track, nearly half are showing minimal or moderate progress, and progress on over one third has stalled ...
[69]
[PDF] The Sustainable Development Goal 6 Global Acceleration Framework
The SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework aims to deliver fast results for water and sanitation, as SDG 6 is currently off track. It has four action pillars.
[70]
[PDF] The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2025
The 2025 progress assessment reveals that the world remains far off track from achieving the 2030 Agenda. Of the 169 SDG targets, 139 could be assessed ...
[71]
https://www.unwater.org/publications/sdg-6-synthesis-report-2023
[72]
Topic Guide: Corruption in Water and Sanitation Sector
Corruption in water and sanitation services ; Key issues and challenges to fighting corruption in the water sector. Forms of corruption in water and sanitation ...
[73]
In Africa, corruption dirties the water - The New Humanitarian
Mar 14, 2013 · According to the World Bank, 20 to 40 percent of public finances worldwide meant for the water sector are lost due to corruption and dishonest ...
[74]
[PDF] The impact of corruption on access to safe water and sanitation for ...
Jul 4, 2017 · In water treatment and sanitation services, corrupt water quality. Page 8. Impact of corruption in the water and sanitation sector on those ...
[75]
Corruption in Public Service Delivery: Experience from South Asia's ...
This paper presents empirical information regarding the types and magnitude of corrupt behaviors documented in water supply and sanitation service provision ...
[76]
Sustainable Development Goal-Six (SDG-6) Water and Sanitation ...
... Water Agencies (SWAs); lack of adequate funding of the sector; poor existing pipe distribution network; chronic corruption in the water sector; epileptic ...<|separator|>
[77]
[PDF] Water and corruption in Latin America
Sep 30, 2021 · Specifically, corruption in the water sector can, among other things: inflate project costs; force citizens to pay bribes to access water; ...
[78]
World Water Day: Corruption in the water sector's costly impact
Mar 21, 2016 · A new report that documents the legacy of corruption in the water sector, revealing corruption's costly impact on the world's water resources.
[79]
Improving transparency, integrity, and accountability in water supply ...
This manual on improving transparency, integrity, and accountability in water supply and sanitation is the result of a partnership between the World Bank ...
[80]
Clean water & sanitation | SDG 6 - World Bank
Although access to clean water has increased in recent decades, population growth and climate change threaten to aggravate water scarcity in many countries.
[81]
— SDG Indicators - United Nations Statistics Division
The proportion of the global population using safely managed drinking water services increased from 70 per cent in 2015 to 74 per cent in 2020.
[82]
SDG Goals - United Nations Statistics Division
Between 2015 and 2024, global access to essential water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services steadily improved. The share of the population using safely ...<|separator|>
[83]
Urban health - World Health Organization (WHO)
Around 40% of urban growth is in slums that lack safe water and sanitation, and 91% of people in urban areas breathe polluted air. When it comes to healthy ...
[84]
UN World Water Development Report 2019 - Leaving No One Behind
Extreme events, environmental degradation, population growth, rapid urbanization, unsustainable and inequitable consumption patterns, conflicts and social ...Missing: demographic | Show results with:demographic
[85]
[PDF] THE IMPACT OF URBANIZATION ON WATER SCARCITY AND ...
Rapid urbanization in Nairobi has intensified water scarcity and waterborne disease risks, especially in informal settlements/low-income communities where ...
[86]
Disparities in access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH ...
Sep 30, 2024 · However, only 66 % of the population in the region had access to safely managed sanitation services in 2017 [13]. Brazil, Argentina, and ...
[87]
Water security and climate action in South Asia's quest for SDG 6 ...
SDG 6 focuses on ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, while SDG 13 aims to take urgent action to combat climate ...
[88]
Reassessing the projections of the World Water Development Report
Jul 31, 2019 · The 2018 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report stated that nearly 6 billion peoples will suffer from clean water scarcity by 2050.
[89]
Chapter 4: Water | Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and ...
This chapter assesses observed and projected climate-induced changes in the water cycle, their current impacts and future risks on human and natural systems
[90]
Climate change impacts on water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH ...
Oct 3, 2025 · Observed impacts include more frequent droughts, floods, and landslides, reducing water quality, quantity, and infrastructure resilience (Pandey ...
[91]
Climate Impact: Africa Faces Severe Water Stress by 2025
Sep 18, 2025 · Global warming is causing extreme weather events such as lingering droughts and devastating floods that is hitting African communities, ...
[92]
World groundwater levels showing 'accelerated' decline - study
Jan 24, 2024 · In around 30% of the aquifers studied, the depletion rate has accelerated since 2000. Some aquifers did improve over the period, in part as a ...
[93]
Groundwater depletion - Interconnected Disaster Risks
21 out of 37 of the world's major aquifers are being depleted faster than they can be replenished. The water stored in aquifers often has accumulated over ...
[94]
Groundwater for People and the Environment: A Globally ...
Nov 21, 2023 · The intensity of global groundwater use rose from 124 m3 per capita in 1950 to 152 m3 in 2021, for a 22.6% rise in the annual per capita use ...
[95]
Rapid groundwater decline and some cases of recovery in aquifers ...
Jan 24, 2024 · Critically, we also show that groundwater-level declines have accelerated over the past four decades in 30% of the world's regional aquifers.
[96]
Wetland Monitoring Workgroup - CA.gov
California has lost more than 90% of its historical wetlands and today, many of the remaining wetlands are threatened. Wetlands continue to be drained for ...
[97]
How does the loss of wetlands affect water quality? - CK-12
The loss of wetlands can lead to decreased water quality, with increased sedimentation, pollution, and nutrient loads in our water bodies.
[98]
https://www.hydroviv.com/blogs/water-smarts/how-deforestation-impacts-water-quality
[99]
Reservoir water quality deterioration due to deforestation ...
Aug 1, 2022 · Process-based catchment-reservoir coupled model is developed for future projections. Deforestation of 80% loss by 2035 can lead to reservoir ...Missing: degradation | Show results with:degradation
[100]
Half the world's countries have degraded freshwater systems, UN finds
Aug 28, 2024 · In half the world's countries one or more types of freshwater ecosystems are degraded, including rivers, lakes and aquifers.
[101]
SDG6, UN: Half the world's countries have degraded freshwater ...
Sep 3, 2024 · According to the papers, in the majority of the world's countries, one or more types of freshwater ecosystems are currently degraded, including rivers, lakes ...
[102]
WHO Global water, sanitation and hygiene: Annual report 2021
Aug 31, 2022 · This report summarizes the World Health Organization's (WHO) global work on water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) during 2021.
[103]
[PDF] The Impact of COVID-19 on the Water and Sanitation Sector
The pandemic has heightened awareness of both the extent and consequences of this access gap, and it could slow down progress in meeting the SDG 6 development.Missing: clean | Show results with:clean
[104]
Billions of people will lack access to safe water, sanitation ... - Unicef
Jul 1, 2021 · Latest estimates reveal that 3 in 10 people worldwide could not wash their hands with soap and water at home during the COVID-19 pandemic.Missing: effects | Show results with:effects
[105]
[PDF] Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene in schools
Every two years the JMP releases updated estimates and progress reports for WASH in households, schools and health care facilities. Policy and Analytical Briefs.
[106]
Building access to clean water in support of Sustainable ... - Unicef
Feb 2, 2023 · The conflict has led to the breakdown or destruction of water treatment works, pollution of wells and increased risks in accessing water points.
[107]
Call To Action for survival & resilient WASH
In order to achieve the SDG6, it is essential not to forget populations living in Fragile, Conflict and Violent settings (FCV), which represent 23% of the ...
[108]
The Gaza conflict and its implications for the sustainable ...
Oct 7, 2025 · The Gaza Strip faces severe water and sanitation challenges, which have been significantly exacerbated by the ongoing conflict, severely ...
[109]
Goal 6: Clean water and sanitation | United Nations Development ...
Safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030 requires we invest in adequate infrastructure, provide sanitation facilities, and encourage hygiene.<|separator|>
[110]
Policy review of the means of implementation targets and indicators ...
Apr 26, 2018 · In this paper, we analyse and critique the Means of Implementation targets of the Sustainable Development Goal on water and sanitation (SDG6).Missing: criticisms | Show results with:criticisms
[111]
"The Use of Knowledge in Society" - Econlib
Feb 5, 2018 · The Use of Knowledge in Society. by Friedrich A. Hayek. What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order?
[112]
Need to adopt scaled decentralized systems in the water ...
Mar 13, 2023 · A major discrepancy posing problems in the funding of water supply projects is that the government allots funds based on the current population, ...
[113]
The U.N. plan to improve the world by 2030 is failing. Does ... - KUOW
Sep 21, 2023 · The U.N. plan to improve the world by 2030 is failing. Does that make it a failure? Michae Igoe. September 21, 2023 / 9:42 ...
[114]
[PDF] what is the evidence on top-down and bottom-up - EPPI-Centre
The explorative and statistical analysis of quantitative evidence suggest a bottom-up approach can be more effective in increasing access to water and ...
[115]
Assessing preferences regarding centralized and decentralized ...
Feb 12, 2014 · While decentralized water systems with independent components may be less vulnerable to systemic failures, hazards, and extreme environmental ...Missing: governance | Show results with:governance
[116]
Drivers and barriers towards achieving SDG 6 on clean water and ...
Key barriers to achieve SDG 6 include inadequate wastewater treatment capacity, over-extraction of groundwater, rapid population growth, the adverse effects of ...Missing: 6.1 testing
[117]
Impact of sanitation monitoring approaches on sanitation estimates ...
Apr 6, 2018 · The study concludes that the overestimation of Government sanitation estimates could not have been due to use of lenient definitions, but other ...
[118]
Evaluating self-reported measures and alternatives to monitor ...
Jan 1, 2021 · A case study was conducted in Malawi to enhance understanding of the self-reported measures and alternatives available to assess and monitor access to drinking ...
[119]
[PDF] NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES DO PROPERTY RIGHTS ...
Property rights are widely prescribed for addressing overextraction of common pool resources, yet causal evidence of their effectiveness remains elusive. We ...<|separator|>
[120]
[PDF] Water Rights and Markets in the U.S. Semiarid West
This chapter's discussion of the resource and po liti cal costs of defining water rights and the use of markets shows that efficiency and equity issues often ...
[121]
Market-driven sanitation solutions reach 3.5 billion people - LinkedIn
Aug 26, 2025 · 760,000 toilets sold across 13 countries is proof that when solutions are affordable, aspirational, and scalable, we move closer to achieving # ...Missing: oriented | Show results with:oriented
[122]
[PDF] Market-based Approaches to Sanitation
Market-based approaches can be applied to deliver a number of products (such as household, shared, or public toilets, using various designs and materials), ...
[123]
[PDF] Case Studies of Individual and Clustered (Decentralized ... - EPA
Proper management of that vast, decentralized wastewater treatment infrastructure helps to protect drinking water sources and helps to keep our waters clean so ...
[124]
Case Studies and Lessons Learned - Water Public Private Partnership
Water for Life: The Impact of the Privatization of Water Services on Child Mortality This study finds that child mortality fell 8 percent in the areas that ...
[125]
The Case of Water Sector Privatization in Colombia - IDB Publications
This paper studies the effects of water sector privatization on consumers' welfare in 46 municipalities in Colombia. The paper evaluates the impact of ...
[126]
3 water and sanitation innovations that could be game changers in ...
Jun 24, 2021 · The second innovation Sanivation offers is its integrated market-based approach to providing sanitation solutions which comprise four main ...
[127]
Advancements and challenges in decentralized wastewater treatment
The environmental benefits of this decentralized system include the potential for local water reuse, reducing the demand for freshwater resources, and ...<|separator|>
[128]
A Systematic Study of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG ...
Nov 30, 2017 · SDGs 1 (No poverty), 3 (Good health and well-being) and 6 (Clean water and sanitation) dominate the global top 10 pairs with synergies. The ...
[129]
Synergies and trade-offs between sanitation and the sustainable ...
We show that there are synergies between sanitation and all 17 Goals and 130 (77%) of the Targets, and trade-offs for 28 (17%) of the Targets.Missing: criticisms | Show results with:criticisms
[130]
The role of context in identifying linkages between SDG 2 (food) and ...
May 30, 2022 · We take SDG 2 (zero hunger) and SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) as SDGs of focus for our analysis. First, we identified linkages based on ...
[131]
Causal mechanisms and governance priorities of the SDG-based ...
Sep 10, 2025 · For example, achieving food security (SDG 2) depends on clean water (SDG 6) as the foundation for agricultural irrigation, while water ...
[132]
Interactions Between SDG 6 and Sustainable Development Goals
SDG6 comprises eight targets and 11 indicators, which can be categorized into the following four dimensions: water quantity (SDG6.1, SDG6.4), water environment ...Missing: underpinnings | Show results with:underpinnings
[133]
Global transboundary synergies and trade-offs among Sustainable ...
Jan 13, 2024 · The actions of other countries focused on protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems may have transboundary SDG impacts, thereby creating ...
[134]
Cross-mapping interactions between access to water and sanitation ...
The paper emphasized the importance of equal and non-discriminatory access to water and sanitation services, an objective otherwise configured in SDG 6 “Clean ...
[135]
The Costs of Meeting the 2030 Sustainable Development Goal ...
This study assesses the global costs of meeting the water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH)-related targets of SDG 6. It is intended to serve as a vital input ...
[136]
Targets on Drinking Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
This study provides an assessment of the global costs of meeting the WASH-related targets of Goal #6.
[137]
UNCTAD counts the costs of achieving sustainable development goals
Sep 18, 2023 · The data shows it would cost countries roughly $78 per person annually to overcome the shortfall of current spending in the 48 developing ...
[138]
Every dollar invested in water, sanitation brings four-fold return in costs
Nov 19, 2014 · For every dollar invested in water and sanitation, there is a $4.3 return in the form of reduced health care costs for individuals and society around the world.
[139]
Economic Aspects of Sanitation in Developing Countries - PMC - NIH
For every US$1 invested, achieving the sanitation MDG target and universal sanitation access in the non-OECD countries would result in a global return of US$9.1 ...
[140]
Corruption in the water sector is an overlooked… - Transparency.org
Jun 24, 2008 · When corruption occurs, the cost of connecting a household to a water network increases by up to 30 per cent, raising the price tag for ...
[141]
[PDF] Constraints on foreign aid effectiveness in the water, sanitation, and ...
In the WaSH sector specifi- cally, Anand ( ) finds that the level of perceived corruption significantly reduces the impact of WaSH aid on increasing ...<|control11|><|separator|>
[142]
[PDF] Incentives for Improving Water Supply and Sanitation Service Delivery
May 14, 2018 · Align sector incentives through integrated policy, institutional, and regulatory interventions to motivate sustainable water and sanitation ...
[143]
SDG 06 - Blueprint for Business Leadership on the SDGs
Infrastructure funding required to achieve SDG targets related to water and sanitation are estimated to be as high as $45 billion per year, with the private ...
[144]
The fresh water crisis is now as urgent as making the transition to ...
Nov 15, 2023 · Today, nearly four billion people are affected by water scarcity (6) ... water demand is projected to increase 55% by 2050 (7). In addition ...
[145]
Imminent risk of a global water crisis, warns the UN World Water
The global urban population facing water scarcity is projected to double from 930 million in 2016 to 1.7–2.4 billion people in 2050. The growing incidence of ...
[146]
Groundwater for People and the Environment: A Globally ... - PubMed
The projected global groundwater depletion, that is, the excess of withdrawal over recharge, in 2050 equals 887 km3, which is about 61% larger than in 2021.
[147]
The changing nature of groundwater in the global water cycle
Mar 1, 2024 · By 2050, the estimated global groundwater withdrawal rate is projected to be ~1250 ± 118 km3 per year, and the depletion rate is estimated to ...
[148]
Some groundwater could be depleted by 2050, according to new study
Dec 15, 2016 · By 2050 as many as 1.8 billion people could live in areas where groundwater is fully or nearly depleted, she said. "When water tables decline, ...Missing: global | Show results with:global
[149]
Global groundwater sustainability: A critical review of strategies and ...
The depleting trend is expected to continue, as water and food requirements are expected to increase by 55 % and 60 %, respectively, by 2050 (Ferroukhi et al., ...Missing: criticisms | Show results with:criticisms
[150]
The role of wastewater treatment in achieving sustainable ...
The challenges toward this wastewater are the complexity and heterogeneity of the pollutants resulting in the need for highly efficient technologies in order to ...
[151]
Barriers to the sustainability of rural water schemes in Sub-Saharan ...
May 12, 2025 · Despite efforts to improve water access, many systems fail to remain operational, hindering progress toward Sustainable Development Goal 6.<|control11|><|separator|>