Billions of people still lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, despite improvement in the provision of these basic services. Water scarcity is a growing problem in many parts of the world, and conflicts and climate change are exacerbating the issue. In addition, water pollution is a significant challenge which affects both human health and the environment in many countries. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a 6-fold increase in current global rates of progress on drinking water, a 5-fold increase for sanitation, and an 8-fold increase for hygiene. Boosting infrastructure investment, improving cross-sectoral coordination, and addressing climate change is key to getting SDG6 back on track.

Targets 6.1 and 6.2: Despite progress, 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water services, 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation services, and 1.9 billion lacked basic hygiene services in 2022. While the majority live in rural areas, the unserved population is decreasing in rural areas and stagnating or increasing in urban areas. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require an increase of 5 to 8 times the current rate.

Target 6.3: An estimated 58% of wastewater generated by households was safely treated in 2022, based on data from 140 countries and territories. Trends for domestic wastewater suggest that little, if any, progress is being made towards the target of halving the proportion of unsafe discharges by 2030.

Target 6.4: Water use efficiency rose from $17.4/m3 in 2015 to $18.9/m3 worldwide in 2020, which represents a 9% efficiency increase. Around 57% of countries presented a water use efficiency equivalent to $20/m3 or less in 2020, compared to 58% in 2015.

Target 6.4: At the global level, water stress remains at a safe level of 18.2% in 2020, but this figure masks vast regional variations and indicates a 1.2% increase from 2015 to 2020. In 2020, water stress levels ranged from high in Southern Asia and Central Asia to critical in Northern Africa. The situation in Western Asia and Northern Africa is particularly concerning since it registered an 18% increase in water stress levels from 2015 to 2020.

Target 6.5: One in two countries still lacks effective frameworks for sustainable water management. A lack of cross-sector coordination over water use, between agriculture, industry, energy production, and household supply, threatens the achievement of several SDGs, including those on food, energy, and life on land. While progress has been made globally since 2015—from 49/100 in 2017 to 54/100 in 2020—the rate of implementation needs to double to achieve the target.

Target 6.5: Data from 2017 and 2020 show that only 32 out of 153 countries that share transboundary rivers, lakes, and aquifers have 90% or more of those waters covered by operational arrangements.

Target 6.6: The extent of surface water bodies, including lakes, rivers, and reservoirs, is rapidly changing across the entire planet, with one in five river basins experiencing high (i.e. above natural) fluctuations in surface water during the last 5 years.

Target 6.a: ODA disbursements to the water sector decreased between 2015 and 2021 from $9.1 billion to $7.8 billion, a decrease of 15%. Total ODA commitments to the water sector have also reduced by 13% from $10.8 billion in 2015 to $9.4 billion in 2021. Commitments peaked at $13 billion in 2017 and have decreased every year since.

Target 6.b: Since 2016, the percentage of countries having procedures for local community participation defined in law or policy has remained high (over 70%) for both rural drinking water and for water resources management. However, the percentage of countries with high levels of participation remains consistently low (under 40%).