Healthy freshwater ecosystems are vital for life on Earth, and everyone needs sufficient clean water for drinking, cooking, and washing clothes. But the ecosystems providing freshwater are under increasing pressure from a growing population, human activities, and climate change
Sustainable Development Goal 6 “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all,” must be achieved by 2030. To track progress towards this goal, we need to monitor and report progress. To this end, eight SDG targets were set, as well as 11 indicators to gauge the extent to which countries are on track to achieve those targets. Information on progress is essential to ensure accountability and generate political, public, and private sector support for investment.
Working with partners within the framework of the UN-Water led Integrated Monitoring Initiative for SDG 6, UNEP officially launched reports, in August 2021, on the three SDG 6 indicators for which it is custodian. These indicator reports are:
SDG 6.3.2 – on the proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality
SDG 6.5.1 – on the degree of integrated water resources management (IWRM) implementation
SDG 6.6.1 – on freshwater ecosystems
A key underlying message from these reports is that existing efforts to protect and restore water-related ecosystems must be urgently scaled up and accelerated.
Each report is accompanied by a short explanatory video:
