Editorial: City-Wide Sanitation: The Urban Sustainability Challenge
Christoph Lüthi, Juliet Willetts, Sabine Hoffmann
Abstract
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 have led to a paradigm shift in how urban sanitation is managed. Targets 6.2 (safely managed sanitation and hygiene services) and 6.3 (reducing the portion of untreated wastewater) now put the focus on managing the entire sanitation chain, encompassing containment, emptying, transport, treatment, and safe reuse or disposal. This has major implications for urban areas, which are a major contributor of untreated wastewater, creating hotspots for environmental degradation and public health hazards (both within and outside of cities) impairing social and economic productivity.<br /> While national water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) targets increasingly reflect SDG ambitions, aiming to provide universal coverage and reach higher levels of service, this is proving difficult in the urban context. Recent Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) and Global Analysis and Assessment of Sanitation and Drinking-Water (GLAAS) reports have underlined uneven progress in sanitation coverage, with progress disproportionally benefiting the wealthy, leaving the urban poor unserved (JMP 2019 update). According to the Joint Monitoring Programme, the gap between the richest and poorest has been reduced in 52 countries but increased in 22 countries - mostly countries emerging from conflict (UNICEF/WHO, 2019, p. 34).