Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Rethinking water for SDG 6

Nature Sustainability volume 3, pages 346–347 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

The world is not on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation by 2030. We urge a rapid change of the economics, engineering and management frameworks that guided water policy and investments in the past in order to address the water challenges of our time.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by United Nations (UN) member states in 2015, challenges us to change the way we think about and manage water. Dedicated completely to water, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 looks beyond targets related to drinking water supply and sanitation (targets 6.1. and 6.2), and includes aspects of water quality and wastewater (target 6.3), water use and efficiency (target 6.4), integrated water resources management (IWRM) (target 6.5), ecosystems (target 6.6) and an enabling environment (targets 6.a and 6.b). This broad spectrum of targets reflects an increasing recognition that, if the world is to achieve sustainable development, then a set of challenges related to water resource management, resilience and governance need to be tackled.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water: 2015 Update and MDG Assessment (World Health Organization, 2015).

  2. Onda, K., LoBuglio, J. & Bartram, J. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 9, 880–894 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Langford, M. & Winkler, I. J. Hum. Dev. Capabil. 15, 247–260 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Herrera, V. World Dev. 118, 106–117 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. The United Nations World Water Development Report 2019: Leaving No One Behind (UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, 2019).

  6. Sachs, J. D. et al. Nat. Sustain. 2, 805–814 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Fukuda-Parr, S. & McNeill, D. Glob. Policy 10, 5–15 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Davis, K., Fisher, A., Kingsbury, B. & Merry, S. E. (eds) Governance by Indicators: Global Power Through Classification and Rankings (Oxford Univ. Press, 2004).

  9. Sustainable Development Goal 6 Synthesis Report 2018 on Water and Sanitation (United Nations, 2018).

  10. Ortigara, A. R. C., Kay, M. & Uhlenbrook, S. Water 10, 1353 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Kochhar, K. et al. IMF Staff Discussion Note SDN/15/11 (IMF, 2015).

  12. O’Donnell, E. L. & Talbot-Jones, J. Ecol. Soc. 23, 7 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Garrick, D. E., Hanemann, M. & Hepburn, C. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 36, 1–23 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Hope, R., Thomson, P., Koehler, J. & Foster, T. Oxf. Rev. Econ. Policy 36, 171–190 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Smith, D. M. et al. Adaptation’s Thirst: Accelerating the Convergence of Water and Climate Action. Background Paper prepared for the 2019 report of the Global Commission on Adaptation (Global Commission on Adaptation, 2019).

  16. Borgomeo, E., Mortazavi-Naeini, M., Hall, J. W. & Guillod, B. P. Earth’s Future 6, 468–487 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Quinn, J. D., Reed, P. M., Giuliani, M. & Castelletti, A. Water Resour. Res. 53, 7208–7233 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Colombo, Sri Lanka

    Claudia W. Sadoff & Stefan Uhlenbrook

  2. Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Edoardo Borgomeo

  3. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, Italy

    Edoardo Borgomeo

  4. IHE Delft, Institute for Water Education, Delft, Netherlands

    Stefan Uhlenbrook

Authors
  1. Claudia W. Sadoff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Edoardo Borgomeo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stefan Uhlenbrook
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edoardo Borgomeo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Sadoff, C.W., Borgomeo, E. & Uhlenbrook, S. Rethinking water for SDG 6. Nat Sustain 3, 346–347 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0530-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0530-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing