Sustainable Development Goal 6 is one of 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. It calls for clean water and sanitation for all people. The official wording is: "Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." The goal has eight targets to be achieved by at least 2030. Progress toward the targets will be measured by using eleven "indicators." SDG6 is closely linked with other Sustainable Development Goals. For example, improving sanitation also helps make cities more sustainable. Sanitation improvements can lead to more jobs which would also lead to economic growth. SDG6 progress improves health and social justice.
Background
The UN has determined that access to clean water and sanitation facilities is a basic human right. Over 2 billion people in the world lack access to water that is free of health risks. By 2017, eighty countries provided access to clean water for more than 99% of their population. From 2000 to 2017, the global population that lacked access to clean water decreased from nearly 20% to roughly 10%.
Targets
SDG 6 has eight targets. Six of them are to be achieved by the year 2030, one by the year 2020 and one has no target year. Each of the targets also has one or two indicators which will be used to measure progress. In total there are 11 indicators for SDG6. SDG 6 includes eight global targets that are aspirational. Each government must decide how to incorporate them into national planning processes, policies and strategies based on national realities, capacities, levels of development and priorities. The eight goals cover the entire water cycle including: "provision of drinking water and sanitation and hygiene services, treatment and reuse of wastewater and ambient water quality, water-use efficiency and scarcity, IWRM including through transboundary cooperation, protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems, international cooperation and capacity-building and participation in water and sanitation management. The first three targets relate to drinking water supply and sanitation:
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations.
Safe drinking water and hygienic toilets protect people from disease and enable societies to be more productive economically. Attending school and work without disruption supports education and employment, both of which are the foundation of alleviating poverty. Therefore, toilets at school and at the work place are included in the second target. Equitable sanitation and hygiene solutions address the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations, such as the elderly or people with disabilities. Water sources are better preserved if open defecation is ended and sustainable sanitation systems are implemented. Preserving natural sources of water is very important so as to achieve universal access to safe and affordable drinking water. Therefore, one target aims to reduce water pollution by eliminating dumping and minimizing the release of hazardous chemicals and untreated wastewater. The potential for recycling and safe reuse of wastewater is also mentioned.
Indicators
The main indicator for the sanitation target is the "Proportion of population using safely managed sanitation services, including a hand-washing facility with soap and water". The current statistic in the 2017 baseline estimate by the Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation is that 4.5 billion people currently do not have safely managed sanitation. The JMP is a joint program of UNICEF and WHO and compiles data to monitor SDG6 progress. The definition of safely managed sanitation service is: "Use of improved facilities that are not shared with other households and where excreta are safely disposed of in situ or transported and treated offsite." Improved sanitation facilities are those designed to hygienically separate excreta from human contact.
Progress
Status in 2019
Between 2000 to 2015, the percentage of global population using safely managed drinking water serviced has increased from 61 to 71 per cent. But this remained unchanged in 2017. In total, 785 million people around the world still lacked basic drinking water service. Globally, the proportion of population using safely managed sanitation services increased from 28 per cent in 2000 to 43 per cent in 2015, with another 2 per cent increase in 2017. Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa, and East and Southeast Asia recorded the largest increase. In total, there are still 701 million people around the world who still had to practice open defecation in 2017. In terms of basic hand-washing facilities with soup and water at home, about 60 per cent of people worldwide have this facility. However, within the least developed countries, only 38 per cent had such facilities, translating to about 3 billion people still without basic handwashing facilities at home.
Links with other SDGs
The SDGs are all interlinked. WASH experts have stated that without progress on Goal 6, the other goals and targets cannot be achieved. In other words, accomplishing the other SDGs will require assuring clean water and sanitation for all as stated in SDG6. Sanitation systems with a resource recovery and reuse focus are getting increased attention and can contribute to achieving at least fourteen of the SDGs, especially in an urban context. Recovering the resources embedded in excreta and wastewater contributes to achieving Goal 12 and Goal 2. Ensuring adequate sanitation and wastewater management along the entire value chain in cities contributes to Goal 11, Goal 1 and Goal 8.
Organizations
The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance works on sanitation issues as a global network of 9000 individuals and 300 partner organizations. Global organizations such as Oxfam, UNICEF, WaterAid and many small NGOs as well as universities, research centres, private enterprises, government-owned entities etc. are all part of SuSanA and are dedicated to achieving SDG6. Ending open defecation will require provision of toilets and sanitation for 2.6 billion people as well as behavior change of the population. This will require cooperation between governments, civil society and the private sector.
