In 2020, water stress levels ranged from high in Southern Asia and Central Asia to critical in Northern Africa. Target 6.4: At the global level, water stress remains at a safe level of 18.2% in 2020, but this figure masks vast regional variations and indicates a 1.2% increase from 2015 to 2020.

Around 57% of countries presented a water use efficiency equivalent to $20/m3 or less in 2020, compared to 58% in 2015. Target 6.4: Water use efficiency rose from $17.4/m3 in 2015 to $18.9/m3 worldwide in 2020, which represents a 9% efficiency increase. Trends for domestic wastewater suggest that little, if any, progress is being made towards the target of halving the proportion of unsafe discharges by 2030. Target 6.3: An estimated 58% of wastewater generated by households was safely treated in 2022, based on data from 140 countries and territories. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require an increase of 5 to 8 times the current rate. While the majority live in rural areas, the unserved population is decreasing in rural areas and stagnating or increasing in urban areas.

Targets 6.1 and 6.2: Despite progress, 2.2 billion people still lacked safely managed drinking water services, 3.4 billion lacked safely managed sanitation services, and 1.9 billion lacked basic hygiene services in 2022. Boosting infrastructure investment, improving cross-sectoral coordination, and addressing climate change is key to getting SDG6 back on track. Achieving universal coverage by 2030 will require a 6-fold increase in current global rates of progress on drinking water, a 5-fold increase for sanitation, and an 8-fold increase for hygiene. In addition, water pollution is a significant challenge which affects both human health and the environment in many countries. Water scarcity is a growing problem in many parts of the world, and conflicts and climate change are exacerbating the issue. Billions of people still lack access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene, despite improvement in the provision of these basic services.

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