The United Nations Sustainable Goal 6:
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consist of 17 key commitments that strive to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all by 2030.
Yann Arthus Bertrand has chosen this photo to represent the challenges of meeting the United Nations SDG 6.
Yann Arthus Bertrand - Young Girls Carrying Buckets of Water in the Dogon Area Near Bandiagara, in the Moptin Region, Mali (14°20’ N – 3°37’ O)
During the dry season in Africa, women and girls frequently walk 10 km to collect water for the family. In Sub-Saharan Africa, it’s estimated that 40 billion hours per year are spent doing this. Girls often quit school to help their families with water.
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According to the United Nations:
In 2015, over 90% of the world’s population used improved drinking water.
Water scarcity continues to affect more than 40% of the global population.
Further reading:
BNP Paribas:
SDGs through a large range of actions BNP Paribas fully contributes to achieving all 17 and initiatives.
Our commitment to achieving SDG 6:
To guarantee access to water and sanitation and to ensure sustainable management of water resources, BNP Paribas has developed financing and investment products.
A BNP Paribas Wealth Management client has been actively involved in and committed to the association "1001fontaines" which has been a pioneer in social business, using low cost technology and a financially sustainable model to provide safe water at an affordable price to the most underprivileged populations.
1001fontaines: addresses the burning issue of providing sustainable access to safe drinking water for the low-income populations. With more than 2 billion people drinking unsafe water, and waterborne diseases causing 3.6 million deaths every year, we need to find replicable, scalable solutions able to ensure quality while keeping the product affordable. 1001fontaines decided to tackle this challenge with a strong conviction that sustainability is key. To date, 1001fontaines has established more than 220 water kiosks in Cambodia and Madagascar, providing safe drinking water to 600,000+ beneficiaries, including 175,000 children receiving free water at school. This has durably improved the health of all the beneficiaries, with reduced risk of waterborne diseases, and created better educational conditions for children, whose absenteeism has dropped by 50 to 75%. The water kiosk solution has also enabled the creation of 600 jobs directly in the villages, fostering livelihoods and economic development Since 2004, 1001fontaines has not only proven that water kiosk is a feasible solution to create access to safe drinking water. This association also demonstrated the sustainability of the model, and its capacity to be deployed at a large scale. It is now time to globally join forces to expand this approach throughout the planet.