Goal 6: what “safely managed” water means, and why it moved the numbers

Until 2015, the Millennium Development Goals asked one question about drinking water: did a household use an improved source, such as a piped supply, a protected well or a borehole? Goal 6 asks three. For water to count as safely managed, the source has to be on the premises, available when it is needed, and free from contamination.

Applying the stricter test moved millions of people out of the "served" column at once, without any change to the water they drank. Nothing got worse on the ground. The definition got harder to meet, and anyone comparing water figures from before and after 2015 needs to know which standard they are reading.

Eight targets, two of them about the home

Goal 6 has eight targets. Only the first two concern what a household sees: drinking water (6.1), and sanitation and hygiene (6.2). The second names open defecation directly and asks for attention to "the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations."

The next four reach past the tap. They cover water quality and wastewater (6.3), water-use efficiency and scarcity (6.4), managing water across whole river basins, including across borders (6.5), and protecting mountains, forests, wetlands, rivers, aquifers and lakes (6.6).

The last two, 6.a and 6.b, are about how the work gets done: international support for water and sanitation programs, and the participation of local communities in managing their own water.

Where the measurement runs thin

The safely managed standard is only as good as the data behind it. It needs evidence on three things at once, and a country that measures only one or two of them cannot report the headline figure at all.

Most of the measuring also happens at home. Water and toilets in schools, clinics and workplaces are counted through separate surveys that far fewer countries complete. A school without a working latrine can sit inside a village that looks well served.