UN Sustainable Development Goals

Water is the foundation of everything and is present in almost every part of people’s daily lives. When the sun is used to heat water, the need for fuel decreases, and the household suddenly has better conditions for hygiene.

The Global Goals highlight the importance of clean water, sanitation, health, nutrition, clean energy, and climate action. But a fundamental need easily falls between the goals, and that is specifically hot water. We rarely think of hot water as part of basic infrastructure. Where there are utility grids, electricity, and functioning energy systems, it simply comes out of the tap. For millions of people living outside these systems, the reality is different.

Access to clean hot water has a fascinatingly large impact on water, hygiene, energy, health, nutrition, and climate. Having hot water that is also clean ties together several of the Global Goals, especially SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation and SDG 7 on sustainable energy.

The sun connects the goals

Global Goal SDG 6 is about clean water, sanitation, and hygiene for all. The global indicator for hygiene measures, among other things, whether people have access to a place for handwashing with soap and water. But water also requires energy. Heating water for everyday needs can require fuel, money, and time. In communities without reliable electricity or modern energy services, this often means burning wood or charcoal.

Therefore, hot water lies at an important intersection:

Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation meets Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy. Solvatten unites the two by using sunlight to purify and heat water simultaneously. The missing link between several global goals. Hot water does not have its own global goal. However, access to safe and heated water can contribute to progress in several of them, see below.

Goal 5 – Gender Equality

Water and energy are also a matter of time. In many households, women and girls bear a large part of the responsibility for fetching water, cooking, washing, cleaning, and caring for children and family. When water must also be heated over wood or charcoal, another step is added: collecting or buying fuel, building a fire, and waiting for the water to get hot. Access to safe and hot water closer to home can therefore be about more than hygiene and health. It can also reduce time-consuming household chores and free up time for education, livelihood, and other activities. This is closely related to target 5.4, which highlights the need to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work and the importance of infrastructure that can reduce this burden.

Connection: water + energy + time + gender equality

Goal 6 – Clean Water and Sanitation

Safe water is fundamental. But households also need water for hygiene, laundry, bathing, cleaning, and cooking. Solvatten uses sunlight to treat water while providing access to hot water without the need for electricity or fuel.

Goal 7 – Affordable and Clean Energy

Hot water is an energy service. Where modern energy infrastructure is lacking, families may rely on wood or charcoal to heat water. Solvatten replaces part of this energy need with renewable solar energy, directly where the water is needed.

Goal 3 – Good Health and Well-being

Water, sanitation, and hygiene are closely linked to health. Access to safe water reduces exposure to waterborne infections, while easily accessible hot water facilitates daily hygiene and cleaning in homes, schools, and healthcare settings.

Goal 2 – Zero Hunger

Nutrition is not just about what ends up in the bowl. Food needs to be prepared with safe water, utensils need to be cleaned, and infants and children need a hygienic environment for feeding and meals. If the focus is solely on nutrient intake, there is a risk of missing the environment where children eat, drink, and grow.
Good nutrition also requires water, hygiene, and energy.

Goal 13 – Climate Action

Heating water requires energy. When energy comes from wood or charcoal, a daily household need contributes to emissions and increased pressure on natural resources. Solar heating turns a necessary energy need into an opportunity for climate action.

Goal 15 – Life on Land

Less wood for heating water can also mean reduced pressure on forests. Allowing trees to remain protects habitats, soils, biodiversity, and natural carbon sinks. In this way, a solution at the household level is linked to larger ecosystems.

What happens between the goals matters

The Global Goals were developed to help us understand the world’s challenges. But reality does not fit into seventeen separate boxes.

Water affects health. Health affects nutrition. Hot water requires energy. Energy choices affect forests and the climate.

Solvatten operates in the space between the goals. By using a resource that is already available—the sun—Solvatten can provide access to safe and hot water without dependence on electricity, wood, or charcoal. Sometimes the greatest opportunities for change are not found within a single Global Goal.

They are found in the connections between them. Just add sun