Brad Jarvis (@bradjarvis.bsky.social)

From Access to Resilience: Reframing SDG 6 Through Gender and Climate Risk On World Water Day 2026, the global theme “Water and Gender” arrives at a critical moment. The theme seeks to accelerate progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6): ensuring access to water and sanitation for all by 2030. Yet, as the SDG Report 2024 underscores, progress remains dangerously off track, with several indicators showing a slowdown. At the centre of this challenge are water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) systems—the infrastructure, services, and institutions that deliver safe drinking water, sanitation, and basic hygiene across households, schools, and health facilities. Climate change, however, is increasingly altering the availability, quality, and predictability of water resources, exposing structural weaknesses within these systems. The challenge is therefore shifting from expanding access to ensuring reliability under stress. These pressures can be understood through a simple relationship: risk = hazard × vulnerability. Climate change is intensifying hazards through more frequent droughts, floods, and contamination, while vulnerability is shaped by underlying social and economic inequalities, including gender. Climate change, however, is increasingly altering the availability, quality, and predictability of water resources, exposing structural weaknesses within these systems. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is useful here not as a fully operational model, but as a guiding framework for... https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/from-access-to-resilience-reframing-sdg-6-through-gender-and-climate-risk