World risks missing sanitation- and water-related SDG – new report

16th April 2021

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

     

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The world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) to ensure water and sanitation for all by 2030, and the Covid-19 pandemic has set reaching the targets back even more.

The current rate of progress now needs to quadruple to reach the global target of universal access to water by 2030.

The latest ‘Summary Progress Update 2021: SDG 6’ report shows that much more needs to be done urgently, says UN Water chairperson and International Fund for Agricultural Development president Gilbert Houngbo.

In the update, the United Nations (UN) said that seven out of eight SDG regions were currently off track to achieve universal coverage by 2030.

Millions of people worldwide still do not have access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation, particularly in rural areas and least- developed countries, even though both services have long been defined as human rights.

In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people lacking safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 40% since 2000.

While water use has remained relatively stable at global level during the last ten years, and with 17% of available water resources being withdrawn, the world as a whole is not considered water-stressed, there are significant regional differences.

Rural inhabitants and the poor are impacted on the most, with 785-million people – eight out of ten people in rural areas and nearly half of those living in least-developed countries – lacking even basic drinking water services in 2017.

In some regions, the level of water stress has increased by 35% during the last two decades, with many countries withdrawing all their renewable-water resources or even relying on nonrenewable resources that will eventually run dry.

Worldwide, many water sources are drying up or becoming more polluted, while water-intensive industries, such as agriculture and energy generation, are growing to meet the needs of an expanding population.

Further, the report, produced by the UN Water Integrated Monitoring Initiative on SDG 6, highlights the impossibility of assessing the wastewater treatment and water quality situation globally as country data is missing for large parts of the world.

Land remains under pressure and ecosystems that provide water are disappearing, while climate change is making water more scarce and unpredictable, wreaking havoc and displacing millions of people, the report reveals.

“The effects of climate change are often seen in changes in water availability, such as increasing water scarcity in some regions and flooding in others,” the summary highlights.

Owing to urban growth population, the number of city inhabitants lacking safely managed drinking water has increased by more than 50% since 2000.

When it comes to integrated water resources management, the current rate of progress needs to double to meet the global targets, and only two SDG regions are on track to have all their transboundary water bodies covered by operational cooperation agreements, says Houngbo.

Achieving universal access to safely managed drinking water by 2030 will require a fourfold increase in current rates of progress, including a substantial increase in current levels of investment.

“Achieving SDG 6 is a national responsibility. More than anything, politicians and policymakers at national level need to set bolder priorities,” he says.

“We must make sure that decision-makers are clear about the economic case: when we invest in water, it has a catalytic effect on other areas such as health, education, agriculture and job creation.”

However, for national action to be effective, it needs to include all parts of society, including governments, civil society, business, academia and development aid agencies.

“And it will be essential to scale up this cooperation across countries and regions.”

The UN Water unit last year launched the SDG 6 Global Acceleration Framework, with the full backing of the UN family, to mobilise action across governments, civil society, the private sector and the UN to better align efforts, optimise financing and enhance capacity and governance.

“Our immediate, shared task is to establish safe water and sanitation services in homes, schools, workplaces and healthcare facilities. We must increase investment in water-use efficiency, wastewater treatment, and reuse, while financing the protection of water-related ecosystems.

And we must integrate our approaches, with improved governance and coordination across sectors and geographical borders,” concludes Houngbo.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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