The drinking water sector comprises all the activities involved in withdrawing, treating and distributing water so that water users can benefit according to their needs. The sanitation sector covers all activities relating to the collection, disposal, treatment – and reuse – of wastewater and rainwater. These two sectors are so important for humanity that they are the focus of ambitious global targets unanimously adopted by all countries in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): at least 8 of the 169 targets of this global programme directly concern them.
WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE GLOBAL SITUATION?
The adoption of these targets in 2015 has resulted in a better understanding of the global situation in these areas and there is now enough data for each country to produce reliable global estimates. For certain SDGs, this information has been compiled on several dates, making it possible to track progress against desired outcomes. For example, regarding access to drinking water and sanitation, we now have solid estimates of current needs and trends since 2015 at global level, by major region, and for many countries. In terms of a average, there has been clear progress but it is far from sufficient. This average conceals deteriorating situations for large sections of the world’s population.
As far as remediation and pollution removal are concerned, there is still not enough information to assess global progress. We finally have an estimate of the proportion of water discharged by populations worldwide that is not treated properly before being released into the environment (42% in 2022, according to the WHO3). But, we still do not know whether total global water flows used by populations and released without any pollution removal is increasing or decreasing. Data are also still insufficient concerning global estimates of the pollution discharged by industry. Besides, the indicators chosen for the SDG targets 6.6 and 14.1 are insufficient for measuring the impacts of drinking water and sanitation activities on water and marine ecosystems.
Nevertheless, although still limited, this new statistical knowledge is a major step forward. For targets where it has been possible to estimate changes over time, stakeholders can no longer be content with fine speeches about how much they are doing and the resulting progress. They are now confronted with the reality of actual needs.
THE BIG CHALLENGE FOR STAKEHOLDERS: ACTING FASTER AND DOING MUCH MORE!
At present, most of the different stakeholders are doing what they can with their respective resources and constraints. While many really positive initiatives are being launched by public authorities, financial institutions, economic players, NGOs and local communities, unfortunately, taken as a whole, they are not enough. They only partially meet current needs, especially when these needs are increasing: demographic, urban and economic growth are increasing global demand for drinking water and sanitation year in, year out. If progress is not made quickly enough, the number of people without satisfactory access to these services may actually increase rather than decrease. Unfortunately, this is what is happening in the urbanised half of the world’s population, and throughout sub-Saharan Africa as a whole.
This gap between what has been done and what needs to be done is usually not very visible because each stakeholder category communicates what they are doing in a positive manner and few compare the speed of progress with actual needs – and even fewer adjust their actions accordingly. The very large gap in some areas is narrowing only slowly. It is even increasing for certain populations, not because of inaction, but because progress is slower than the rate at which needs are increasing.
The collective global challenge for water and sanitation stakeholders is clear: they need to do more, faster. We need to move from a world in which the numerous water sector stakeholders are satisfied with their respective actions to one where the scale of the drinking water and sanitation challenges is being effectively addressed. This means setting more ambitious national and local targets, mobilising more human and financial resources and removing many obstacles. For many decision-makers, it also means moving from aresource-based culture – “I do what I can with the budgets I’m given” – to a results-based culture – “I seek out a whole array of human and financial resources that will enable me to achieve the results I’m asked to achieve”. This results-based culture lies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda, which outlines the objectives without indicating the path. The means are left up to each and everyone.
Since 2010 and the recognition by the United Nations of access to safe drinking water andsanitation as basic human rights, public authorities can no longer be content merely to do the best they can with arbitrarily chosen budgets. They have an obligation to achieve a result: toensure that their entire population has satisfactory access to safe drinking water and sanitation by mobilising the necessary resources. This change in the role of public authorities was enshrined in EU legislation in 2020.
THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS CONCERNED IN MANY DIFFERENT WAYS
Public authorities are obviously primarily concerned by the need to speed up deployment on the ground and to develop a results-based culture in line with objectives. But the private sector is also involved because it helps to meet people’s drinking water and sanitation needs both through publicly-led actions or the private initiatives that round these out.
Several categories of private players are involved in the water sector and each has to contend with their own constraints. Manufacturers of pipes, pumps, equipment and other products necessary to water and sanitation infrastructure, as well as the builders of these infrastructures, must ensure that their equipment is durable and easy to maintain. They must also innovate and optimise in order to reduce costs, provide equipment that is adapted to the wide variety of practical situations, anticipate the impact of changes such as water warming, the emergence of new pollutants or changes in
needs and uses, and so on. Regulated private operators act at the request and under the control of the public authorities, most often under public-private partnership (PPP) agreements. Like the public operators engaged in the same activity, these private players must adapt to differences in the quality and quantity of water resources, to changing needs and uses, to the emergence of new pollutants, to the need to serve populations without satisfactory access, to different social demands and to climate change. Private operators of unregulated or poorly regulated services also play an important role in this sector: distributors of water in mobile tankers or cans, manufacturers and distributors of bottled water, and so on. Without forgetting the vacuum tanker companies who empty the contents of private sewage pits and must comply with specific environmental standards.
Private banks are essential for players in the water sector, as they enable them to bridge the time lag between their disbursements and receipts and to finance long-term investments. It is vital that they meet the financing needs of both public operators and private players more effectively. Electricity distributors must supply water infrastructures as a priority and on a continuous basis, because without electricity, pumps cannot function and the water supply comes to a standstill. Local and international associations and non-profits can set up and operate drinking water or sanitation infrastructures. Lastly, consultancies analyse problems, advise public authorities, design projects and help track their implementation. All of these private players need to adapt to changes in their respective markets. Add on the operational side of public operators and public inspection services, and you have the entire drinking water and wastewater ecosystem. Its members complement each other and operate in a more or less regulated way, under the direction and control of the public authorities.
THE ROLE OF PUBLIC AUTHORITIES AND THEIR FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
For the entire ecosystem to produce more services, public authorities first need to set more ambitious targets within the framework of long-term public policies focused on achieving results and regularly adjusted in line with progress actually achieved.
However, the stakeholders in this ecosystem will only be able to collectively achieve these objectives if they have sufficient financial and human resources, and only if they can overcome the internal obstacles and disincentives restricting these resources and resulting from diverging interests, lack of trust in the other partners or inadequate regulations. For example, to respond to needs more effectively – rather than merely seeking to finance them – it is important for public authorities and financial institutions to enable the financing of a greater number of investments by using ‘leveraged’ finance. For this to happen, they need to make the investment projects of local public and private operators more credible and create more trust between the players and on the financial markets. This will help to bring down interest rates on ‘commercial’ loans, which are often totally unsuited to very long-term investments.
But removing all these obstacles will not be enough. The situation will only improve significantly once these essential services become a clear priority for politicians and decision-makers. Today, on a per capita wealth basis, some developing countries devote half as much funding (i.e., public budgets + financing provided by users) to water and sanitation as others !
For the past four years, UN-Water has been communicating widely about the need to ramp up public water and sanitation policies without any conclusive effect so far. There has been no notable change of pace but this is no easy task as it challenges many entrenched habits and political arrangements.
And yet, to prevent a situation where billions of people still do not have drinking water or sanitation generations from now, we need to act much faster and much more forcefully, looking beyond the short-term interests of the different stakeholders. A collective leap forward is absolutely essential, and no later than the second UN Water Conference to be held in December 2026.
