Water management is one of the most challenging Goals on the 2030 Agenda. As the UN Economic and Security Council reports, “despite progress, billions of people still lack safe water, sanitation and hand washing facilities.” Furthermore, “achieving universal access to even basic sanitation service by 2030 would require a doubling in the current annual rate of progress.”

Water scarcity afflicts many of the world's poorest countries and the situation is expected to worsen due to environmental and population-related causes. Steps to improving infrastructure and water management are critical to achieving water available to all. The specific targets for the coming decade include:

• Achieving universal access to clean drinking water and sanitation, in particular, ending practices of open defecation and illegal dumping of industrial waste into water supplies.
• Protecting and improving environmental water quality, including freshwater ecosystems, rivers, lakes, and also our oceans. 
• Increasing water-use efficiency, recycling, and management, especially in the use of wastewater in industrial settings.
• Supporting cooperation on water management issues on both the international and community levels, focusing in particular on working across borders.
• Increasing capacity, especially in the management of and investment in public works projects to improve infrastructure and development. 

The stories below highlight a few of the many solutions to providing clean water and sanitation to all. 

1. Review the water cycle, then, research and explain the ways in which human activity is reducing the availability of fresh water worldwide. Define terms like “salinization” and explain how agricultural activity, erosion, and runoff reduce the availability of fresh water.   
2. What is meant by the term “water stress?” How does water stress, in turn, relate to the poverty cycle on the individual level, and to developmental and security issues on the national level?
3. What does the UNICEF WASH program stand for? Explain the ways in which clean water and sanitation are public health as well as education issues. Consider what roles schools play.
4. Create a diagram that illustrates the ways in which Goal 6 directly effects the targets of at least 5 of the other goals.
5. Choose a Success Factor related to Goal 6 and explain its significance.