The Sustainable Sanitation Alliance works for a world in which all people have access to adequate sanitation, regardless of gender, age, income, culture or location. Sanitation systems are important contributors to broader sustainable development.
We believe that sustainable sanitation is the key to realizing this vision. That means that sanitation systems should be economically viable, socially acceptable, technically and institutionally appropriate, and protect health, the environment and natural resources. We call these the five sustainability criteria (or dimensions).
SuSanA and the Sustainable Development Goals
Despite intense activity and some considerable achievements, the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on safe drinking water and basic sanitation was not met by the 2015 deadline.
There are several billion people in the world who lack access to basic or to safely managed sanitation. The result is a public health crisis, with infants and young children being the most affected group.
The Sustainable Development Goal on sustainable water and sanitation management (SDG 6) aims at giving access to water and sanitation to all by 2030. This is not just about achieving a narrow sanitation access target. The targets under SDG 6 address sanitation beyond toilets, including aspects of excreta management and reuse.
Furthermore, good sanitation, hygiene and wastewater management are fundamental to achieving many of the other SDGs. The SDGs and the broader 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development make the work of SuSanA more important than ever.
Further reading
- Concept Paper SuSanA 2.0 (2022)
- Contribution of sustainable sanitation to the Agenda 2030 for sustainable development - SuSanA Vision Document 2017
- Sustainable sanitation and the SDGs: interlinkages and opportunities (2017)
- SuSanA Joint Roadmap 2015 to 2018 (June 2017) - includes our mission statement from 2013
- SuSanA vision document from 2008 (in English); eleven other language versions of the vision document are available here.
- All publications of SuSanA available are here in our library.
