Addressing Water Pollution as a Means to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Water pollution remains a major challenge in today’s world and addressing it has become a top priority for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development brings water quality issues to the forefront of international action by setting a specific goal (SDG 6: ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all) aiming to respond to the pressing challenges posed by water pollution. However, how does water pollution relate to the rest of SDGs? The answer to this question-which is important to identify and understand key development concerns related to water quality-is the purpose of this paper. A descriptive research is undertaken to highlight the interdependencies between water pollution and the 2030 Agenda. The findings confirm two key points: (i) there are many pathways by which water pollution can hinder the realization of various SDGs and (ii) water quality can also benefit from the achievement of SDGs. Although not exhaustive, this descriptive analysis of the links between water pollution and SDGs can provide some insight to practitioners, researchers and policy-makers addressing the water pollution challenge.

Author(s): Fatine Ezbakhe

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