SDG 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation

Clean drinking water is a basic requirement for sustainable development and healthy human existence. When there is no access to clean water and drinking water is contaminated, this facilitates the emergence and spread of diseases. Globally, more children die as a result of unclean water than from malaria, measles and AIDS combined. If there is no water supply to villages in some, often rural, areas, it is usually the women and girls who have to walk to the wells to provide for their families, sometimes over long distances. This means that they have neither the time nor the energy to attend school or participate in economic activities.

Demand for water will continue to increase going forward, while the available freshwater resources are limited. Population growth, increased demand for water from irrigation farming, climate change, violent conflicts and migration may lead to further water crises. Against this background, providing more and more people with clean drinking water presents a major challenge. KfW is supporting its partners to protect water as a resource, reduce water waste in the long term and (re)use treated waste water where it is reasonable to do so.

In Georgia, for example, KfW is promoting an integrated approach to renovating, modernising and building municipal infrastructure. This includes drinking water supply systems and waste water removal systems in areas of Georgia that see a lot of tourism. This helps to facilitate the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly tourism. By doing so, the project is also contributing to regional economic development and aiding adaptation to the impacts of climate change. An integrative program is also being implemented in Uganda, comprising measures from the areas of water and sanitation, surface drainage, waste disposal and the development of a land use plan.

A lack of access to clean sanitation creates risks for hygiene and health. However, there are currently 3.6 billion people without this “safe access” (2020). They use communal toilets or latrines that are often in bad condition and are not connected to the sewerage system. Regular disposal of faeces is also not guaranteed in many cases. In some areas, such as Southern Asia, even basic facilities are not available as a matter of course. Diarrhoea and cholera result – and kill 2,200 children under the age of five every day worldwide. If sewage is not treated adequately, it pollutes rivers and lakes, which in turn makes it harder to access clean drinking water. This is why KfW is campaigning for safe sanitation and for sewage to be collected, drained and treated in partner countries.

In Kenya, growing peri-urban areas of the capital Nairobi (“satellite towns”) are facing the major challenge of providing a sufficient level of public infrastructure and services, especially in relation to water supply and sanitation. KfW is helping these areas to provide the people in the satellite towns with adequate access that is also socially and economically viable. To enable this, a participative bottom-up approach has been used, the first of its kind in Kenya. The local water utilities are themselves proposing investments focusing on poorer population groups in the target areas.

After many years of preparation, a wastewater treatment plant in the Gaza Strip co-financed by KfW began operation at the beginning of 2021, which will in future dispose of wastewater from eleven communities with one million inhabitants in a regulated manner.

At present, 2.3 billion people live in countries where water is scarce and there are long-term problems with demand for water exceeding the amounts that are available. Population growth, urbanisation and climate change are likely to further exacerbate the situation in many countries. Extreme weather events, which will most likely occur more often going forward due to climate change, may cause enormous damage due to flooding. Droughts, falling water tables and soil salinity also limit the availability of water as a resource.

One way to make more water available is through rain water management. KfW is responding to increasing interest from partners in this topic, which is also highly relevant in the context of climate change adaptation. For a long time now, KfW has been supporting measures to protect poor districts and infrastructure in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, against landslides and flooding.