Wastewater - Turning Problem to Solution

Box 2: The Sustainable Development Goals and wastewater

Water is integral to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015, an agenda guided by three universal principles: application of a human rights-based approach; leave no one behind; and gender equality and women’s empowerment (United Nations DSDG 2022). SDG 6 has an ambitious target to improve wastewater management and safe reuse, explicitly recognizing its importance both in its own right, as well as a contributor to achieving many other SDGs, including food security (SDG 2), health and well-being (SDG 3), achieving gender equality, and empowering all women and girls (SDG 5), clean affordable energy (SDG 7), responsible production and consumption (SDG 12), climate action (SDG 13), life below water (SDG 14) and life on land (SDG 15), among others. SDG 6 sets the ambition to ensure access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. Specifically, target 6.3 aims,

by 2030, to improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping, minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally (DESA 2015). Two indicators have been adopted to track progress in implementation: the proportion of total domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated (6.3.1), and the proportion of waterbodies with good ambient water quality (6.3.2). There is currently no indicator adopted to measure the reuse component of the target, although this is in development as part of indicator 6.3.1. Water quality has tremendously degraded due to effluent discharge and countries are still lagging on achieving both indicators 6.3.1 and 6.3.2 (UN-Habitat and World Health Organization [WHO] 2021). Progress to deliver SDG 6 target 6.3 is considered in chapter 3.2 of this report.

Wastewater SDG 6 and interdependencies across SDGs

6.1

6.2

6.B

6.A

6.3

6.6

6.4

6.5

Figure 1.4: Wastewater SDG 6 and interdependencies across SDGs.

GRID-Arendal/Studio Atlantis, 2023

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