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Water for sustainable development

The alarmingly slow progress on water-related goals and targets jeopardizes the entire sustainable development agenda. In March 2023, the United Nations (UN) convened the first UN Water Conference in nearly 50 years to create momentum and accelerate progress. The outcome of the conference will feed into the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which will be held in New York on July 10–19, 2023. Nature Water asked five experts about the challenges to meet the goals and where we need to go from here.

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Correspondence to Karin Sjöstrand.

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Sjöstrand, K. Water for sustainable development. Nat Water 1, 568–572 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00108-2

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