The race is on to realise the most fundamental of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – ensuring that everyone has access to water, sanitation and hygiene services – by the 2030 deadline, says ForAfrika disaster response director Charles Wentzel.

There are six years to go, and ForAfrika, the largest African humanitarian development organisation, is doing its best to bring water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services to as many people as it can in the countries in which it works: Angola, the Central African Republic, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan and Uganda. The SDGs are a set of 17 global objectives established by the United Nations to address social, economic and environmental challenges and promote sustainable development worldwide by 2030.

“Everywhere we work, we collaborate with other development organisations so that resources are effectively allocated, and there is no doubling up. Most important of all, however, is that we work with communities to ensure that the services we help them to provide tie in with their goals and aspirations,” Wentzel says ahead of World Water Day on 22 March.