Introduction
Water is life. Yet, in 2025, billions of people still lack access to safe water and sanitation, making SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation one of the most urgent—and furthest behind—of the Sustainable Development Goals. At the same time, the world is beginning to question whether the SDG framework as a whole is still fit for purpose. Are the goals realistic? Can they adapt to a rapidly changing global landscape?
This article explores the dual challenges of accelerating water and sanitation access while reevaluating how we measure global progress. It highlights key statistics from 2025, discusses technological solutions, and ends with a critical look at whether the SDGs can still deliver a sustainable and equitable future.
SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
A Stark Assessment in 2025
None of the targets under SDG 6 are currently on track. As of 2022, an estimated 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water at home, and 3.5 billion were without safely managed sanitation—defined as a hygienic toilet system with safe waste treatment (UN DESA – Goal 6). Even when using a more lenient definition of “basic access,” hundreds of millions remain underserved.
Progress since 2015 has been painfully slow. The proportion of people with safely managed drinking water rose only from 69% to 73%, and for sanitation from 49% to 57%. To meet SDG 6 by 2030, the world would need to accelerate progress by five to six times the current rate.
The Growing Threat of Water Scarcity
Water scarcity is a worsening global issue. Due to a combination of overuse, population growth, and climate change, roughly half of the world’s population experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of the year. About 25% of the population lives in countries facing “extremely high” water stress, where more than 80% of available renewable water resources are used annually (UN DESA – Goal 6).
Droughts, intensified by climate change, affected 1.4 billion people between 2002 and 2021. This includes both sudden disasters and creeping, long-term droughts that undermine agriculture and livelihoods.
The Quality Problem
Even where water is available, quality is not guaranteed. Only about 56% of monitored water bodies globally meet quality standards, and only 60% of global wastewater is safely treated. Rivers and groundwater remain widely contaminated by untreated wastewater, industrial effluents, and agricultural runoff.
Sanitation is equally dire. Around 500 million people still practice open defecation, and urban slums in low-income countries often lack any formal sewage system. In these environments, waste contaminates water supplies and contributes to widespread diarrheal disease, a leading cause of child mortality.
Technological Solutions – Emerging but Uneven
Technology offers tools to address water and sanitation gaps, but adoption remains inconsistent. In rural areas where traditional piped networks are not feasible, solar-powered groundwater pumps paired with storage tanks can supply clean water using renewable energy. In countries like India, low-cost sensors and IoT devices now monitor water quality in real time, checking for contaminants such as arsenic or fluoride.
Desalination technology—the process of removing salt from seawater—has become more affordable and efficient, particularly when paired with renewable energy. It plays a vital role in regions such as the Middle East. Similarly, wastewater recycling is gaining momentum. Singapore recycles most of its wastewater into ultra-clean water for drinking and industrial use, and Windhoek, Namibia, has been safely reusing wastewater for decades.
In sanitation, off-grid solutions are emerging. The “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge”—funded by the Gates Foundation—has led to designs for self-contained toilets that treat waste on-site. While still in early phases, such technologies have been piloted in schools and public facilities across Africa and South Asia. Other innovations include urine-diverting dry toilets, container-based waste services, and nature-based wastewater treatment such as constructed wetlands.
Governance Challenges and Financial Gaps
Water and sanitation services depend not only on technology but also on infrastructure investment, institutional coordination, and community engagement. Many developing countries underfund their water sectors, and international aid remains insufficient to bridge the financing gap. According to UN estimates, at current trends, 660 million people will still lack basic drinking water and 1.9 billion will be without basic sanitation by 2030.
Climate change makes water management more complex. Floods and droughts often hit the same regions in different seasons, requiring infrastructure capable of absorbing and managing both extremes. Yet few countries have robust water resilience plans.
Transboundary water cooperation is also underdeveloped. Although 153 countries share rivers and lakes, fewer than 20% have comprehensive agreements covering all their shared water resources. Without such agreements, upstream decisions can harm downstream communities, undermining cooperation and climate adaptation.
Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)
A promising approach to solving these issues is Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM)—a strategy that manages water use across agriculture, industry, and households while protecting ecosystems. However, IWRM implementation currently scores only 57 out of 100 globally (UN DESA – Goal 6), showing how far we are from holistic water governance.
Improving IWRM requires better data. Today, satellites and remote sensing tools can monitor reservoir levels, soil moisture, and groundwater with high accuracy. This information can help governments plan for both scarcity and surplus, optimize water allocation, and design early-warning systems for droughts and floods.
Private Sector and Community Roles
The private sector also plays an important role. Some companies, especially in water-intensive industries like beverages or textiles, are improving their water-use efficiency and investing in watershed restoration as part of corporate social responsibility efforts. Public-private partnerships are extending infrastructure to low-income areas, for example, through small-scale operators that run water kiosks in slums or maintain public toilets under government oversight.
Meanwhile, community participation boosts project success. Initiatives that involve residents in the design, operation, and maintenance of water and sanitation systems often see higher adoption and sustainability rates. This is particularly important in fragile or informal settlements, where centralized systems may be impractical.
Rethinking the SDG Framework – Is It Still Fit for Purpose?
As we take stock in 2025, it’s not just individual goals like SDG 6 that are under scrutiny. The entire SDG framework is being reexamined. Critics argue that the SDGs are too ambitious, with 169 targets across 17 goals. They point out contradictions—expecting countries to reduce inequality, protect the environment, and grow their economies all at once, without clear mechanisms to balance trade-offs.
There are also concerns about accountability. Unlike treaties, the SDGs are not legally binding. A 2022 review in Nature Sustainability found that while the SDGs have shaped discourse, they have had limited impact on actual policy or budget decisions (Nature Sustainability).
Other critics suggest that the SDG framework has failed to adapt to global shocks, such as COVID-19 or major conflicts. Many development experts now talk about the need for a “SDG 2.0” or an extension beyond 2030, recognizing that many targets will be missed. They propose more context-specific, flexible goals that reflect national capacities and vulnerabilities.
On the other hand, supporters argue that the SDGs provide a common language and moral compass for development. Even where full implementation lags, the SDGs have driven unprecedented cooperation across governments, businesses, academia, and civil society. Many governments and organizations now align their strategies with SDG indicators—even launching SDG-linked bonds or investment funds.
Conclusion
In 2025, the global water and sanitation crisis is far from over. SDG 6 remains one of the most off-track goals, with massive disparities in access, quality, and financing. Yet, technologies exist to accelerate progress, from solar pumps and smart sensors to off-grid toilets and wastewater recycling. The problem lies not in what we lack, but in how we scale what works and ensure equity and resilience.
The broader SDG framework, while flawed, still serves as a valuable tool for global cooperation. As we head toward 2030, the choice is not whether to keep or abandon the goals, but how to adapt them, strengthen accountability, and better mobilize resources. Water and sanitation are foundational to human dignity and planetary health. If we fail on SDG 6, progress on health, education, and climate will falter too.
We have the tools. What’s needed is the will.
(This is Part 3 of a 3-part series on the SDGs in 2025. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.)
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