World Water Day 2023 is about accelerating change to solve the water and sanitation crisis. Dysfunction throughout the water cycle undermines progress on all major global issues, from health to hunger, gender equality to jobs, education to industry, and disasters to peace.
In 2015, the world committed to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6 as part of the 2030 Agenda – the promise that everyone would have safely managed water and sanitation by 2030.
Right now, we are seriously off-track.
Billions of people and countless schools, businesses, healthcare centers, farms, and factories are being held back because their human rights to water and sanitation still need to be fulfilled. There is an urgent need to accelerate change – to go beyond ‘business as usual.’
The latest data show that governments must work on average four times faster to meet SDG 6 on time, but this is not a situation that any single actor or group can solve.
Water affects everyone, so we need everyone to take action.
The global campaign “Be the change” encourages people to take action in their lives to change how they use, consume and manage water. These promises from individuals and communities will contribute to the Water Action Agenda alongside larger commitments from governments, companies, organizations, institutions, and coalitions.