Goal 6 of 17
Clean water and sanitation
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
What this goal is about
Goal 6 is about everyone having safe drinking water, a decent toilet and somewhere to wash their hands, and about managing rivers, lakes and groundwater so there is enough clean water for people, farms, industry and nature.
There has been real progress: between 2015 and 2024, 961 million people gained safely managed drinking water and 1.2 billion gained safely managed sanitation. Yet in 2024 about one in four people still lacked safe drinking water, and wastewater treatment has stalled since 2020.
Water touches every other goal. Without it, children miss school, women and girls spend hours collecting water, diseases spread and harvests fail.
The main targets
By 2030, safe and affordable drinking water for everyone.
By 2030, adequate sanitation and hygiene for all, ending open defecation, with special attention to women, girls and vulnerable people.
By 2030, improve water quality by cutting pollution, halving untreated wastewater and increasing safe recycling and reuse.
By 2030, use water more efficiently in all sectors and withdraw freshwater sustainably to reduce water scarcity.
By 2030, manage water resources in an integrated way at all levels, including cooperation across borders.
Protect and restore water-related ecosystems such as mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes (2020 deadline).
Expand international cooperation and support for developing countries on water supply, sanitation, treatment, reuse and desalination.
Support and strengthen local communities' participation in managing water and sanitation.
Summaries in plain English. The full wording of every target and indicator is on the UN Goal 6 page.
What businesses can do
- Measure and fix leaks. Read a year of water bills and check the meter overnight while closed. Any movement is a leak worth fixing first.
- Fit efficient fixtures. Add tap aerators and dual-flush cisterns, and compare water use per cycle when replacing dishwashers or washing machines.
- Keep pollution out of drains. Use grease traps, store chemicals safely, use licensed collectors and follow your local utility's discharge rules.
- Provide decent toilets and handwashing. Give staff clean, lockable toilets, soap and water at every handwash point, and menstrual product bins.
- Ask suppliers about water risk. Agriculture uses about 72% of freshwater withdrawals, so ask key suppliers where their water comes from and whether it is stressed.
What you can do
- Save water at home. Turn taps off while brushing or soaping, take shorter showers and report leaks to an adult who can fix them.
- Run a school water audit. With a teacher, check taps, toilets, drinking points, soap and menstrual bins, then present simple fixes to the school.
- Join World Water Day and World Toilet Day. Organise a talk or campaign on 22 March or 19 November, with an adult helping on any online accounts.
- Explore water careers. Engineering, lab science, hydrology, public health, data and GIS, plumbing, policy and urban planning all serve Goal 6.
Open data from the WHO and UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme, mobile survey tools such as mWater, shared standards such as the Water Point Data Exchange and satellite records of surface water help governments and NGOs see which services work and where gaps are. Meter data and simple software can spot leaks. These tools only help when someone owns the data, keeps it current and has the budget to act, and 85% of countries report insufficient revenue for their water plans.
Sources
- UN DESA, Goal 6: targets and progress
- United Nations, The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2026: Goal 6
- WHO, 1 in 4 people globally still lack access to safe drinking water (26 August 2025)
- UNICEF data, JMP report 2025: Progress on household drinking water, sanitation and hygiene 2000-2024
- United Nations, Water and sanitation
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