**8. Sustainable development goal 6**

Access to proper sanitation and safe drinking water is the major health intervention that offers the greatest economic benefits as well. Nearly half of all the instances of malnourishment are caused by lack of safe drinking water, unhygienic environment, and inadequate sanitation. A further issue is the continuing decline in water purity and growing scarcity. By 2050, it has been predicted that at least one fourth of total world population would live in a country with persistent or long-term freshwater scarcity, affecting over 2 billion individuals currently. It is vital to put measures in place that will ensure human utilization of water is sustainable and environmentally efficient. In light of this, SDG 6 includes far greater array of water related targets than just improving accessibility [29] **(Figure 1)**.

SDG 6 is essential since it also affects some other SDGs directly, such as SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SGD 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing), SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG 14 (Life Below Water) and SDG 15 (Life on Land) [18]. SDG 6 contains eight targets, all of which deals with different challenges regarding water [6].

As per the recent reports by Integrated Water Resource Development, India would likely require more than 900 billion m3 of water in a low load situation and more than 1000 billion m3 in a peak load situation by the end of the year 2050. The nation's present water supply is 695 billion m3 , whereas the current sustainable groundwater availability has been estimated to be 1137 billion m3 .

*Achieving Sustainable Development Goal Related to Water and Sanitation through Proper… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109970*

**Figure 1.** *Targets of SDG 6 to be achieved by 2030.*

6 billion population in India endure mild to severe shortage of water, and fluoride poisoning of aquifers has already been found in 184 regions, based on a recent study by the Green Governance Initiative [6]. It is crucial for India to start advancing towards achieving SDG 6 tragets as early as possible to combat the growing issues of water scarcity and poor sanitation among others.
