SDG 6 on Ensuring Water and Sanitation for All: Contributions of Canadian Law, Policy and Governance
A Toolkit of Legal & Institutional Practices
Water plays a central role in development as an essential, if not the essential, element of life. In many regions water scarcity is a critical challenge, leading to conflict and exacerbating critical factors related to poverty eradication and hunger. In Canada, a country with abundant access to water, the issue is in many ways not scarcity, but purity, and security of the water supply in critical areas. Ensuring access to safe and affordable drinking water in Canada brings to light the complexities of fulfilling such a mandate given Canada’s geographic scope, and the challenges experienced by rural Canadians and Indigenous people.
This Toolkit focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 6 on Water and Sanitation (SDG 6 Water), which commits to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”, highlighting the need to ensure access to water and sanitation for all, and to care for the water resources necessary for sustainable development. Access to safe water and sanitation underpins human health, agricultural production, conservation of biodiversity, and human settlements. Ensuring universal access requires protection of water-related ecosystems, as well as restoring critical supporting mechanisms such as forests and upstream riparian water systems. The inclusion of SDG 6 on water shines a critical light on access to water for all Canadians with law playing a key role in advancing its implementation.
Download here: SDG 6 Water – Toolkit – Can and SDGs – 12.07.2020-4
