The 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a call for action for all for all countries to achieve a better and sustainable future. They build on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development whicht was adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015.
The goals aim to address the most pressing economic, social, and environmental challenges facing our world today, including poverty, inequality, climate change, and environmental degradation. The SDGs are intended to be universal and apply to all countries, regardless of their level of development, and provide a framework for global cooperation and collaboration. Each of the 17 goals has specific targets and indicators, which are used to measure progress towards achieving them.
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In this project, we work with the Goal 6 'Clean water and sanitation: Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all'.

As students from Switzerland, clean water is a common good in everyday life to us, and not having easy access to clean water is hard to imagine. Therefore, we wanted to take a look at the situation worldwide. How good is the access to clean water around the world, and what is its spatial distribution?

The power of perspective
The SDG goals are to be pursued and worked with by all participating nations, regardless of their level of achievement. From a global view, it is easy to say that the northern hemisphere has a better access to safe water than the southern hemisphere. But this interpretation opens up space for premature conclusions and invites people to point fingers at countries that fare worse than their own country when it comes to implementing new regulations and work to make water households more sustainable. We want to counter this with our work.

Understanding and interpreting spatial distributions are context-based. The understanding of patterns and their classification is dependent on the individual perspective and therefore constantly susceptible to misinterpretation. The spatial distribution itself does not have to change, but different perspectives can lead to different conclusions.
Thats why we take the display of water safety to a European perspective:
Where can WE do better?

The research questions to guide through the project are:

•   How does the quality and safety of water vary around the globe?

•   How is the water quality in an Europe context?