Clean Water and Sanitation
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
UN Sustainable Development Goals
17 Sustainable Development Goals are at the core of the United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They represent a blueprint for peace and prosperity that all its member states adopted in 2015.
Find out more about how Newcastle University is working towards these goals to help create a better and fairer world.
Goal 6
We ensure that clean water is:
- free and available for those using our campus
- not being wasted by us to help preserve this precious resource
Our researchers look at water provision and sanitation locally and internationally. There are ongoing projects researching water wastage and climate change impacts.
Our activity
Drinking water provision
Free drinking water is available to everyone using our campus.
You can find many of our drinking water points on the student campus map. Several of our publicly accessible water points are also on the Refill App.
Our campus
We have an Environmental Management System (EMS) certified to ISO 14001. This helps prevent water pollution and to reduce water usage across the University.
We've carried out water-conscious planting by replacing grass areas with mixed herbaceous borders.
Our Sustainable Construction Specification contains building standards that help us minimise water usage.
Working with Northumbrian Water
We're working with our regional water company, Northumbrian Water, to digitise our water systems. This means we can better understand and respond to issues.
We are also working on wastewater and green infrastructure projects with our partners there.
We offer exclusive student placement opportunities at Northumbrian Water thanks to this partnership.
Preventing pandemics
Recommendations were submitted to the World Health Organisation (WHO) for tackling antibiotic resistance. Professor David Graham, at Newcastle University, was a contributor to this. He calls for improvements to water and sanitation provisions to help prevent global pandemics.
Research
The Centre for Water
The Centre for Water is a Newcastle University Centre of Research Excellence (NUCoRE). It is a transdisciplinary research centre working from the local to the global scale. The centre reaches across all our campuses in the UK, Malaysia and Singapore.
Engineering Water Group
Our School of Engineering has a specific Water Group researching water systems and mitigation of climate change. The group's research informs teaching at the University, and national and international decision making.
View our video, Celebrating 70 Years of Water Research At Newcastle University.
The Global Challenges Academy
The Global Challenges Academy has a variety of current projects on Sustainable Water. The outcomes of these research projects inform policy on an international scale.