Safe water and sanitation services for all : fundamental to climate change adaptation

This policy brief finds that, in 2022, a large portion of the rural and urban population lacks access to safe water and sanitation due to limited capacities of service authorities and providers, as well as financial shortfalls, making it almost impossible to achieve SDG 6 targets by 2030. However, the adoption of a systems strengthening approach is seen as crucial to realising sustainable services and making communities more climate resilient, aligning with climate action and the climate change agenda. The policy brief includes short case studies from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Ethiopia and India.

This is one of four policy briefs that highlight challenges, good practices and dilemmas and provide examples to inspire climate action in the WASH sector. They support policymakers and practitioners to promote ways to mitigate and adapt to climate change while strengthening efforts to fulfil the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation. The policy briefs are based on the experiences of Dutch funded climate change adaptation and mitigation initiatives in the sectors and discussions with actors looking for ways to integrate climate action with activities to strengthen water and sanitation services for people in vulnerable situations. The other three are on: climate change mitigation; climate change and finance; and climate change resilience and vulnerability.