About 26 per cent of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water and about 46% of people lack access to safely managed sanitation services, according to this new report by the United Nations.

The United Nations World Water Development Report 2023: Partnerships and cooperation for water, describing how building partnerships and enhancing cooperation across all dimensions of sustainable development are essential to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal for water and sanitation (SDG 6) and realizing the human rights to water and sanitation.

Safeguarding water, food and energy security through sustainable water management, providing water supply and sanitation services to all, supporting human health and livelihoods, mitigating the impacts of climate change and extreme events, and sustaining and restoring ecosystems and the valuable services they provide, are all pieces of a puzzle that can only be solved by cross-sectorial partnerships and cooperation. SDG 6 is to ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030. At current rates, progress towards all the targets of SDG 6 is off-track and in some areas the rate of implementation needs to quadruple, or more. The report explores the theme of partnerships and cooperation for water, across regions, in relation to agriculture, environment, human settlements, industry, health and climate change. [2]