Ten years of SDG 6: what have we learned — and what comes next?
A decade after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda, the world has made real progress on clean water and sanitation: 💧 Nearly 1 billion more people now have access to safely managed drinking water. 🚽 More than 1 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation. 📈 Global water use efficiency has improved by almost 20%.
But progress remains too slow and uneven. At current rates, achieving universal access by 2030 would require: • an 8-fold acceleration for safely managed drinking water, • a 6-fold acceleration for safely managed sanitation, and • a 2-fold acceleration for basic hygiene.
A new policy brief from IISD unpacks the key messages from the forthcoming UN SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026, examining what ten years of implementation have taught us and how these lessons can help shape the 2026 UN Water Conference, strengthen multilateral cooperation and accelerate progress beyond 2030.
💧 Nearly 1 billion more people now have access to safely managed drinking water.
🚽 More than 1 billion people have gained access to safely managed sanitation.
📈 Global water use efficiency has improved by almost 20%.
But progress remains too slow and uneven. At current rates, achieving universal access by 2030 would require:
• an 8-fold acceleration for safely managed drinking water,
• a 6-fold acceleration for safely managed sanitation, and
• a 2-fold acceleration for basic hygiene.
A new policy brief from IISD unpacks the key messages from the forthcoming UN SDG 6 Synthesis Report on Water and Sanitation 2026, examining what ten years of implementation have taught us and how these lessons can help shape the 2026 UN Water Conference, strengthen multilateral cooperation and accelerate progress beyond 2030.
📖 Read the 5-minute summary
📄 Access the report