Ensuring Hygiene for All: Evaluating SDG 6.2 through the Sustainability of Public Sanitation

Glavanits, Judit (2026) Ensuring Hygiene for All: Evaluating SDG 6.2 through the Sustainability of Public Sanitation. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, 15 (4). pp. 74-86. ISSN 2239-5938

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Abstract

Under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6, specifically Target 6.2, the international community committed to ensuring access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all, with particular attention to the needs of women, girls, and individuals in vulnerable situations. Despite this commitment, public sanitation continues to be treated as a discretionary amenity rather than a core public service essential for dignity, mobility, and social participation. This paper examines the gap between the normative framework of SDG 6.2 and the lived realities of sanitation use through an integrated analytical approach that combines international comparative data with an exploratory empirical study conducted in Hungary. Moving beyond conventional metrics of access such as facility counts or service levels, the research highlights how formal equality in provision may translate into substantive inequalities in use. It demonstrates how capacity constraints, maintenance failures, and the lack of care-integrated and inclusive design generate disproportionate burdens for women, while drawing on selected international literature to reflect on broader exclusion and safety concerns in gender-segregated sanitation systems. The findings suggest that current monitoring frameworks, including indicator 6.2.1a, inadequately capture the qualitative dimensions of sanitation access, particularly those related to usability, safety, and dignity in public space. In response, the paper argues for a conceptual shift from infrastructurebased metrics toward a more comprehensive understanding of sanitation as a component of gendered and inclusive urban citizenship. The paper briefly reflects on implications for urban planning and governance, highlighting the relevance of institutional accountability and more inclusive, user-sensitive sanitation design within the broader human rights framework of the United Nations.

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