Finland
Progress on achieving SDG 6
2020 Voluntary National Review
Finland reported to face some challenges with the ageing of their water and sewage networks, resulting in some groundwater areas having traces of harmful substances and overall deteriorated water quality. Finland has acknowledged that protection measures need to be implemented to preserve their water sources. They also reported that development cooperation allocations for the purpose of policy prioritization of water and sanitation have fallen from USD 33 million (2013) to around USD 4.5 million (2017), and payments from EUR 130 million (2016) to just over 2 million (2018), and the decline continues through 2019.
Finland has further acknowledged that improvements need to be made in the following areas: reduce agricultural nutrient releases; consider water and sanitation issues in climate change preparations; consider climate change impacts in water supply-related development cooperation; and be more active in sharing its experiences and competence globally on water supply and sanitation legislation and practice. At the beginning of 2019, Finland’s Ministry of Environment launched the Water Protection Enhancement Programme which will run until 2023 and aims to combat the issues by reducing nutrients and harmful emissions, by rehabilitating watercourses and by increasing research and development efforts.
Finland also updated the national goals for the Protocol on Water and Health up to 2030. The country highlighted that the goals must be achieved or maintained to prevent illnesses caused by water.
Read the full report here: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/26261VNR_Report_Finland_2020.pdf
*The information reflected on this page has been taken directly from the official VNR received from this Member State. The information does not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations.