UPPSC 2019 Prelims GS Paper-I · Question 110 of 150

Correct — A, SDG 6. Goal 6 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reads 'Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all', and the question's phrasing — 'water availability for all and its permanent management' — is very nearly a word-for-word rendering of it, with 'permanent' standing in for 'sustainable'. Goal 6's targets run wider than drinking water alone: universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water (target 6.1) and to adequate sanitation with an end to open defecation (target 6.2), both by 2030, plus water quality and wastewater treatment, water-use efficiency, integrated water resources management, protection of water-related ecosystems, international cooperation and the participation of local communities. In India the programmes that report against Goal 6 are the Jal Jeevan Mission for household tap water, the Swachh Bharat Mission for sanitation, and groundwater initiatives such as the Atal Bhujal Yojana. The date in the question is not a distinguishing clue — every one of the seventeen goals is targeted at 2030 — so the whole question turns on knowing which number carries water.

• (b)SDG – 7 — Goal 7 is 'Affordable and Clean Energy' — ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. It shares the 'for all' and 'sustainable' vocabulary with Goal 6, which is why it is placed next to it here, but its subject is energy, not water.
• (c)SDG – 8 — Goal 8 is 'Decent Work and Economic Growth' — sustained and inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all. Nothing in it concerns water supply or water management.
• (d)SDG – 9 — Goal 9 is 'Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure' — resilient infrastructure, inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and innovation. Because piped water supply is a form of infrastructure this can feel plausible, but drinking water and sanitation were given a goal of their own precisely so they would not be buried inside a general infrastructure goal.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 and sets out 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets, all with 2030 as the horizon. They succeeded the eight Millennium Development Goals, which ran from 2000 to 2015, and differ from them in being universal — they apply to rich and poor countries alike — and in being far broader, adding goals on inequality, cities, consumption, climate, oceans, ecosystems and institutions. Water and sanitation, which had been a single MDG target, were promoted to a goal in their own right as Goal 6. In India, NITI Aayog is the nodal institution for coordinating and monitoring SDG implementation and publishes the SDG India Index, first released in December 2018, which scores every State and Union Territory goal by goal; the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation maintains the National Indicator Framework that supplies the data.

Questions like this test one thing only: the number-to-theme mapping. Fix a spine of the goals you will meet again and again — 1 No Poverty, 2 Zero Hunger, 3 Good Health and Well-being, 4 Quality Education, 5 Gender Equality, 6 Clean Water and Sanitation, 7 Affordable and Clean Energy, 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth, 9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, 13 Climate Action, 14 Life Below Water, 15 Life on Land, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, 17 Partnerships for the Goals. Then watch for the deliberate near-miss the papers like: Goal 14 is called 'Life Below Water' but is about oceans and marine resources, not drinking water. If a stem talks about availability, supply, sanitation or management of water for people, the answer is 6.

• SDG 6 = 'Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all'; target 6.1 is universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water and target 6.2 is adequate sanitation and an end to open defecation, both by 2030
• The 17 SDGs and their 169 targets were adopted in September 2015 as the 2030 Agenda and run to 2030, succeeding the eight Millennium Development Goals of 2000-2015
• The three distractors here: SDG 7 = Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 8 = Decent Work and Economic Growth, SDG 9 = Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• SDG 14, 'Life Below Water', deals with oceans, seas and marine resources — it is the standard trap for a question that mentions water
• In India NITI Aayog coordinates and monitors SDG implementation and publishes the SDG India Index (first edition December 2018, scoring States and UTs); Jal Jeevan Mission, announced in 2019, and the Swachh Bharat Mission are the flagship Goal-6 programmes

• Choosing SDG 14 because its title contains the word 'water' — Life Below Water is about oceans and marine resources
• Carrying over Millennium Development Goal numbering, which is different and ran only to 2015
• Treating SDG 6 as a drinking-water goal alone — sanitation, water quality, water-use efficiency, integrated water resources management and water-related ecosystems all sit inside Goal 6

UPPSC asks the goal-number-to-theme mapping and NITI Aayog's SDG India Index results in almost every cycle, sometimes as a straight match-the-list; UPSC prefers the institutional and historical framing — who adopted the goals and when, and how they differ from the MDGs.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Sustainable Development Goal deals with the conservation and sustainable use of oceans, seas and marine resources?

  • (a)SDG 6
  • (b)SDG 13
  • (c)SDG 14
  • (d)SDG 15

  Answer(c) SDG 14, 'Life Below Water' — SDG 6 covers freshwater and sanitation, SDG 13 is Climate Action and SDG 15 is Life on Land.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In India, the body responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals, and for publishing the SDG India Index, is:

  • (a)the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
  • (b)NITI Aayog
  • (c)the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
  • (d)the Cabinet Secretariat

  Answer(b) NITI Aayog — it is the nodal body for SDG coordination and publishes the SDG India Index. MoSPI is a strong distractor because it maintains the National Indicator Framework that supplies the underlying data.