See all 17 Sustainable Development Goals - SDGs

What is SDG 6 about?

Ensure that water, sanitation and hygiene is available to all.

Clean water for drinking should be easily accessible. Poor infrastructure, investment and planning cause millions of people – most of them children – to die every year from diseases associated with poor water supply, sanitation and hygiene. According to the UN, one in three people lives without access to a proper toilet.

As our climate changes, water is becoming scarcer in some parts of the world. This presents challenges as agriculture, households, energy generators and industries compete for water. Water security poses a significant financial risk to the global economy.

What can a business do to influence SDG 6?

Businesses can develop a water stewardship strategy that addresses the economic, environmental, and social impacts of using water.

How to make progress with SDG 6

Use the UN water tool to better understand your organisation’s most significant water-related risks.
Improve how you use water by applying the 5R principles: reduce, reuse, recover, recycle, replenish.
Protect water-related ecosystems and biodiversity.
Install best-practice technologies for water conservation, particularly in water-scarce areas.
Invest in water and sanitation projects or infrastructure in under-served regions.
Invest in clean-ups and restoring water ecosystems.
Work with other groups such as governments, community groups and peer companies to improve local water governance or on water projects to address challenges.

How businesses can benefit

Secure access to water
Minimise risks
Improve your reputation
Build social licence

Examples

The Gap, through a partnership with Swasti Health Resource Centre, is helping to build water filtration plants in rural communities in India. Three systems currently operate and serve more than 5,000 households and 29 schools across 30 villages.

Procter & Gamble’s not-for-profit Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program (CSDW) provides clean drinking water to children in developing countries. Through its partnership with NGOs, governments, companies and consumers, P&G aims to deliver 25 billion litres of clean drinking water by 2025.

SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation