Inter Press Service: Opinion: “Sanitation, Water & Hygiene For All” Cannot Wait for 2030
Geeta Rao Gupta, deputy executive director of programs at UNICEF

“…[I]f we do not reach Goal 6, the other [Sustainable Development Goals] and targets will not be reached. Progress in the areas of education, health, inequality, and extreme poverty all depends on how well we do on water and sanitation. … [A]ccess to water and sanitation is not only a matter of dignity and human rights, but fundamental to our ability to attain any of the goals the governments of the world have just adopted. We must start right away on working on Goal 6, and it can’t be business as usual: we need to start with the most disadvantaged, or we risk losing the gains we have so painstakingly made in the last 15 years, and we endanger the future. There is no time to waste” (10/9).