BY LORETTA B MANELE
Challenges in the access to safely managed water and sanitation implies that the world will have to double spending to achieve SDG 6, says Gustavo Saltiel, Strategic Adviser on Water Supply and Sanitation with the Water Global Practice (Water GP) at the World Bank.
He highlighted this when delivering his presentation “Strengthening WASH governance in the Pacific: Adapting the World Bank’s PIR Approach” at the Aquatic Centre in Honiara on Wednesday, August 27, 2025.
SDG 6 is the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal for Clean Water and Sanitation and this goal aims to ensure access to safe and affordable drinking water, adequate sanitation and hygiene for all by 2030.
In early remarks, Saltiel explained that their presentation is about strengthening WASH governance in the Pacific using what they call the “PIR approach or methodology” in which PIR stands for “Policies, Institutions and Regulations”.
Moreover, he voiced that we are facing a huge challenge.
“I think everybody is aware of the size of the challenge. Two million people worldwide do not have access to safely managed water supply.
“Almost double do not have access to safely managed sanitation. Fifty percent of the waste waters globally are discharged into the environment without any treatment or limited treatment. Millions of deaths are associated with lack of potable water and lack of sanitation services,” he stressed.
Saltiel mentioned that access to WASH services in health facilities and schools is very limited and numbers for sub-Saharan Africa may be similar to the Pacific.
“All these challenges will be exacerbated by climate change and the difficulties for new utilities to provide safely managed services and reliable water supply and sanitation services will be even more difficult.
“Globally, there are 350 million cubic meters of water per day that are lost as to non-renewable water and this is a huge opportunity,” he said.
Saltiel explained that this in a way shows the size of the challenge and this challenge implies that what the world will need to spend to achieve Sustainable Development Goal No. 6 is huge.
He went on to state that it has been estimated in a global study done by the World Bank, called the “Public Expenditure Review” that the world will need to double spending levels to achieve SDG 6 or this will amount globally to 150 million US dollars per year.
“In East Asia and the Pacific alone, it will be 13 billion US dollars additional to meet SDG 6, not by 2030, even by 2035. So, the challenge is huge, which means that business as usual is not an option,” said Saltiel.
On this note, he stressed that we need to change that and this means basically addressing challenges at two levels.
Saltiel explained that one level is what they call the enabling environment level, policies, institutions and regulation (PIR) and second is the utility level.
He said on the PIR, on the policy side, we have common challenges with familiar situations.
Saltiel stated that this includes financial and institutional capacity, overlapping and unclear roles and responsibilities, unrealistic policies, reforms and targets.
He added that many countries, cities, utilities commit to universal access to water supply and sanitation, safely managed.
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