Noticable amendments in the final text of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)6 are:

• water and sanitation/hygiene are now separate subgoals


• the inclusion of the words "equitable" and "those in vulnerable situations"


• a specific reference to ending open defecation


• a quantifiable subgoal of "halving the proportion of untreated wastewater" by 2030, and


• acknowledgement of the role of local communities in water and sanitation management.

If you are cynical you might conclude that the publicity surrounding the rape and murder of the two girls in India (see the discussion in the SuSanA Forum) has influenced the inclusion of ending open defecation in SDG subgoal 6.2, while the root of the problem remains unaddressed. Women's groups regret that the proposed SDGs "fall short of women’s aspirations for a strong set of transformative goals needed to achieve gender equality, women’s human rights, sustainable development in harmony with nature, and an end to inequalities". If you are not (or less) cynical, you might say that it is a result of the good work of UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson who launched the End Open Defecation campaign.

So what got left out? First, specific references to the human right to water and sanitation and to extra-household WASH (schools, health centers and refugee camps). One could argue that these issues are already covered by terms like "universal access", "equitable" and "for all" including "women and girls and those in vulnerable situations".

Secondly, as IRC's Catarina Fonseca mentions in her blog , missing in an emphasis on the actual provision of water and sanitation services rather than just infrastructure. She also points to the fact that there is still of lot of work needed to make all the targets smart and measurable.

Will the water SDG end up in the final list next year? Even though there is a strong UN and civil society lobby - led by the likes of UN-Water and End Water Poverty, respectively - we can't be complacent. In her blog , Catarina lists what sector organisations need to do keep the pressure on.

Here is the full text of Proposed Goal 6: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

6.1 by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all

6.2 by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations

6.3 by 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater, and increasing recycling and safe reuse by x% globally

6.4 by 2030, substantially increase water-use efficiency across all sectors and ensure sustainable withdrawals and supply of freshwater to address water scarcity, and substantially reduce the number of people suffering from water scarcity

6.5 by 2030 implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate

6.6 by 2020 protect and restore water-related ecosystems, including mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes

6.a by 2030, expand international cooperation and capacity-building support to developing countries in water and sanitation related activities and programmes, including water harvesting, desalination, water efficiency, wastewater treatment, recycling and reuse technologies

6.b support and strengthen the participation of local communities for improving water and sanitation management

Dear colleagues,

Following our earlier discussion on this subject, I would like to inform you that last Saturday, the Open Working Group for Sustainable Development Goals adopted a proposal for Sustainable Development Goals to be forwarded to the 69th session of the General Assembly for its consideration. The proposal contains 17 sustainable development goals, each with its set of targets and means on implementation. It is the fruit of nearly 18 months of discussion on the post-2015 agenda.

I think we can be very pleased that Water and Sanitation figure very prominently in the proposal.

First of all, water and sanitation is the subject of a dedicated SDG, goal 6 aiming to “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”. Under this goal, 6 targets foster measurable and time-bound actions to: achieve universal access to water, sanitation and hygiene; improve water quality and increase waste water treatment; enhance water efficiency and sustainability of water withdrawals; implement integrated water resources management, including through transboundary cooperation; and protect and restore water related ecosystems. Means of implementation include international cooperation and capacity-building and participation of local communities.

Moreover, water and sanitation are also strongly mainstreamed in the other goals of the agenda: explicitly referred under the goals on health, cities and human settlements, sustainable consumption and production and terrestrial ecosystems, and more implicitly in many others, including the goals on poverty, gender equality and climate change.

At this stage, it is still unclear how much this report will remain unchanged during next year of negotiations: whether it will be reopened or adopted by the General Assembly as it is at the Summit in September 2015. Therefore, the advocacy efforts for water and sanitation must carry on next year. Moreover, next year will be also important for reflections on the implementation of the agenda, in particular the water and sanitation SDG, including on its monitoring, on the partnerships needed to support it, etc.

Whatever the course of the future negotiations on the whole agenda will be next year, it is important to recognize that the consensus on water and sanitation is very broad and the support to the goal on water and sanitation is strong and consistent throughout the regions and the groups of countries.

Therefore this report can be seen as a good summary of the global water agenda and will guide and influence the work of all of us both at the national and international levels.


With best regards
Roland Schertenleib


Independent consultant, formerly head of Eawag-Sandec (Dübendorf, Switzerland
One of the founding fathers of SuSanA

Dear all

the zero draft for the SDG for the post 2015 Agenda are out and online here: sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html

The 6th of 17 goals is of interest to the SuSanA community:

List of Proposed Sustainable Development Goals to be attained by 2030
...
6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world
...

Details of the goal from the zero draft:

Proposed goal6. Secure water and sanitation for all for a sustainable world

6.1 by 2030, provide universal access to safe and affordable drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene for all

6.2 by 2030 provide universal access to safe and affordable sanitation and hygiene including at home, schools, health centers and refugee camps, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls

6.3 by 2030, improve water quality by significantly reducing pollution, eliminating dumping of toxic materials, and improving wastewater management by x%, recycling and reuse by y%

6.4 by 2030, improve water-use efficiency by x% across all sectors

6.5 implement integrated water resources management, including appropriate trans-boundary co-operation

6.6 ensure sustainable extraction and supply of fresh water, and by 2020 protect and restore ecosystems and aquifers that provide water-related services

6.7 by 2030 decrease by x% mortality, and decrease by y% economic losses caused by natural and human-induced water-related disasters

6.8 provide adequate facilities and infrastructure, both built and natural, for safe drinking water and sanitation systems, for productive uses of water resources and for mitigating the impacts of water-related disasters

I look forward to when the X% and Y% are included.

Rgds
Trevor

An update on the discussion on the SDG target for water & sanitation:

A group of 77 NGOs led by the Mining Working Group and including Biofuel Watch, Blue Planet Project, Corporate Accountability International and the End Water Poverty Coalition, have signed a letter of protest accusing the UN Open Working Group (OPW) on SDGs of bypassing water and sanitation as a basic human right.

The new SDGs are expected to be adopted at a summit meeting of world leaders in September 2015.

Read more in the IPS article by Thalif Deen on " U.N.’s Post-2015 Agenda Skips the Right to Water and Sanitation ", 6 May 2014.

Twitter hashtags to follow include: #SDGs and #OWG11

The SDG target for water & sanitation is being discussed at UN on 6 May - sustainabledevelopment.un.org/owg11.html

There has been a whole series of stakeholder discussions and now it is up to the Open Working Group (OWG) on Sustainable Development Goals to submit their recommendations to the UN General Assembly by September 2014. After the May meeting, there will be be two more OWG sessions in June and July.

There has been broad support for a dedicated water SDG and the specific target being discussed on 6 May is shown below (note that hygiene has been included after pressure from WaterAid, EWP and other groups):

Focus area 6. Water and sanitation

Water and sanitation for a sustainable world

a) by 2030, provide universal access to safe and affordable drinking water, sanitation and hygiene[44], especially for women and girls[45]

b) by 2030, improve wastewater management, recycling and reuse by x%[46]

c) by 2030, improve water-use efficiency[47] by x% in all sectors, with particular focus on agriculture [48]

d) implement integrated water resource management, including appropriate trans-boundary co-operation[49]

e) by 2030, bring fresh water extraction in line with sustainable supply, protect and restore ecosystems, to provide water-related services [50]

f) by 2030, significantly improve water quality, eliminate pollution and dumping of toxic materials in water bodies, and protect aquifers [51]

g) invest in water harvesting and storage technologies, and double the rainwater harvested by 2030[52]

h) decrease by x% mortality and serious injuries, and decrease economic losses caused by water-related disasters, by 2030 [53]

Appropriate means of implementation

The numbers in brackets refer to the country and stakeholder groups that support the specifc sub-target, as listed in the OWG working document .

The UN Global Compact has developed an issue briefing series which addresses the Post-2015 Development Agenda and corresponding sustainable development goals.

There are ten papers, released April 10, 2014, including one on water and sanitation , which look into different priority issues, which were identified by consultations with LEAD companies and stakeholders.

The briefs can be found here: www.unglobalcompact.org/news/931-04-10-2014

The Water and Sanitation brief is also saved as a PDF here, below.

(Posted by Roslyn)

I plan to set up a small farmers' union aiming at setting up a good example of sustainable agriculture with these goals.


It is a big step forward after so many years Ecosan researches by all of you. These goals will replace many meaningless wordings about sustainable development.

Dear Madeleine,

It is a interesting and useful document. Is there a similar report in respect of sanitation? Thank you

Best regards,

F H Mughal

This is a big step! Congratulations.

In regards to the Water / and dirty water within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals

Catalyzing water for sustainable Development and growth
framing Water within the Post 2015 Development agenda: options and considerations

This report looks at the costs and benefits of addressing coming water challenges through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

It is published by the UN Office for Sustainable Development (UNOSD) and the UN University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), in collaboration with SEI.

www.sei-international.org/publications?pid=2436

Enjoy your reading
madeleine

We (e.g. UWASNET) recently analyzed the new proposed WASH goals and feel that the sanitation targets are a bit underwhelming if you look at the indicators in more detail.

The new targets of only focusing on improved sanitation in schools & work-places and the "end of pipe" solution for urban and industrial treatment, might somewhat "realistic" in face of the failure of the MDG targets in sanitation, but I find them very uninspiring and also not really solving the main issues.
Much more focus should be put to improve the general hygienic surroundings of human settlements, instead of picking out some easy to reach point targets that have probably little overall effect.
The only interesting part (in regards to sanitation) is the "end open defecation" part, but here I must say that this goal is impossible to reach to 100% (maybe on paper, but I don't think we should have paper targets).

Edit: Reason for the impossibility of reaching 100% ODF: think of the typical live-style of a pastoralist community in a developing country and you will see that you might convince them to use a toilet when it is convenient (e.g. in the mornings and evenings and/or when they are near their homesteads), but it will be impossible to make them stop OD completely. And besides, there isn't a huge difference between only having a lot of animal feces around and adding some human feces to that mix. Here the goal should be on reducing OD behavior and increasing overall environmental hygiene also in regards to animal feces.

Dear all

In the beginning of June the High Level Panel on Sustainable Development Goals was handed of the UN General Secretary;“A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development

www.post2015hlp.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/UN-Report.pdf

The vision of the High level panel and its responsibility " is to end extreme poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development and to have in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all.”

The report is really interesting and bring forward important features for global collaboration aiming at a more sustainable development.
E.g for the first time ever Waste Water has entered the global development agenda and several SuSanA partners have been active aand contributed in this process . This report is now in circulation and will be commented on. This is a very important document and process where SuSanA would be able to play an important role commenting the report and contribute to the global dialogue on Sustainable Development.In essence it is also a guiding report for future challenge for SuSanA, as the MDGs has been and will continue to be up to 2015.
Therefor it is important to continue the participation in the formulation of future goals and targets and it would be truly interesting to hear some comments and immediate reflections from the forum members to this report.

All the best
Madeleine