This review paper, released shortly after the launch of the SDG Agenda, is a comprehensive review of SDG6.2 sanitation and hygiene. It looks at definitions, expected challenges, costs of meeting the targets, and proposed ways forward.
The authors’ objective is to understand the scale and nature of the challenges set out by SDG6.2 and to inform the work of practitioners and decision makers in sanitation and hygiene. They build on the SDG6 sanitation and hygiene definitions and targets, on the MDG experience, on ‘real world’ global sanitation and hygiene, and on selected literature, fleshing out fundamental aspects and issues. The paper looks at four principal challenges associated with the SDG6.2: population growth, the number of people requiring safely-managed sanitation and hygiene in this period, the current wastewater and faecal sludge treatment deficit, and elimination of open defecation. It also proposes ways forward to face the challenges that need overcoming to achieve universal access to safely-managed hygiene.
The article is very accurate and thought-through but also accessible, and presents clear recommendations. It explains clearly the magnitude of efforts that SDG6 demands in Sanitation and Hygiene.
