Exploring IWRM Linkages in UN Sustainable Development Goal 6

Abstract

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development defines the mutual values of the international community. These values are captured in the goals as agreed upon by its Member States. Each of the goals has a set of defined targets whose progress can be measured through a change in the associated data indicator. This way, the pursuit of the Agenda becomes an organized, globalized effort that can be tracked, measured and evaluated. While the achievement of many of these goals and targets are inherent in pursuing good politics, as, for example, there are few heads of state that will strive for economic decline (opposite of SDG 8), progress on the overall Agenda can in many other ways become complex. An example of this is when there exists potentially a conflict or synergy between targets of a goal - where improving on one target comes at the cost or benefit of another. This report aims to analyse the possible relationships between the SDG 6 targets. This is done through the comparison and juxtaposition of different data sets that are then evaluated with each other statistically. Given the considerable amount of data constraints, only few possible intralinkages could be identified. No negative trends were discovered, while positive trends were found between the access to drinking water (6.1.1) and the following: integrated water resources management (6.5.1), official development assistance for water (6.a.1) and water management participation (6.b.1). Other positive trends were identified with the not-published, national data on integrated water resources management (6.5.1) and: access to drinking water (6.1.1), access to sanitation (6.2.1), and official development assistance for water (6.a.1). These results reveal that Integrated Water Resources Management is an effective tool for achieving SDG 6 of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.