Achieving Abundance: Understanding the Cost of a Sustainable Water Future

The working paper introduces a method to calculate the financial cost of closing the gap between current and desired water management conditions to help prioritize challenges and Sustainable Development Goal 6 targets. It estimates that delivering sustainable water management globally for all countries and major basins would cost US$1.04 trillion (2015$) annually from 2015 to 2030.

• The paper introduces a calculation method for decision-makers to determine the cost of delivering sustainable water management within a specific geography, allowing for the financial comparison and prioritization of water-related challenges or targets of Sustainable Development Goal 6.
• The estimated global annual cost to achieve sustainable water management across all countries and major basins from 2015 to 2030 is US$1.04 trillion in 2015 dollars.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). Achieving Abundance: Understanding the Cost of a Sustainable Water Future. https://www.wri.org/research/achieving-abundance-understanding-cost-sustainable-water-future

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Achieving Abundance: Understanding the Cost of a Sustainable Water Future. n.d. https://www.wri.org/research/achieving-abundance-understanding-cost-sustainable-water-future.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Achieving Abundance: Understanding the Cost of a Sustainable Water Future |url=https://www.wri.org/research/achieving-abundance-understanding-cost-sustainable-water-future |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendachieving, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Achieving Abundance: Understanding the Cost of a Sustainable Water Future}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://www.wri.org/research/achieving-abundance-understanding-cost-sustainable-water-future}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }