IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute

Although billions of people worldwide have gained access to basic drinking water and sanitation duringthe last two decades, data suggests that ‘leaving no one behind’ by 2030 would require doubling the currentannual rate of progress1 sanitation and hygiene targets within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs. Inperi-urban areas, the increasing number of unconnected customers poses additional challenges. Businessas-usual will not address the problems of low coverage, inadequate service levels and poor sustainabilityof water and sanitation systems. A combination of new technologies with innovative models of servicedelivery will be needed to close the existing gaps and reduce inequalities. In particular, service providers willneed to simultaneously adopt new, informal solutions for unconnected users and more traditional, formalmechanisms to connect more users to the centralized piped infrastructure, through an ambidextrous strategy.