SDG 6 Clean water and sanitation

SDG 6 is about access to drinking water and sanitation, and sustainable water management. In the Netherlands, the main concerns in this area are the affordability of drinking water, water quality and the efficient use of water.

• The cost of drinking water continues to rise.
• Use of water is becoming more efficient.
• There is an upward trend in the populations of freshwater and marshland fauna species.

Dashboard and indicators

Colour codes and notes to the dashboards in the Monitor of Well-being

Drinking water supply in the Netherlands is very well organised, but water companies indicate that they are concerned about their ability to continue to supply water in the future. The demand for water is growing: summers are getting drier and the number of people, businesses and homes is increasing every year. The availability of fresh water to produce drinking water is decreasing. In addition, the quality of the groundwater and surface water used to produce drinking water is not always good enough.

Resources and opportunities concern the scale of water reserves available and the cost of providing households with clean drinking water. Production costs for water companies are increasing, which means the cost of drinking water for end users is also rising. By 2024, production costs for water companies had risen to 1.65 euros per cubic metre. This increase is mainly due to rising prices for raw materials and other resources. A high level of investment in drinking water treatment and infrastructure is also required. As a result, end users are paying more for their drinking water. In 2024, the cost of drinking water was 2.17 euros per cubic metre. The reason that end users pay more than the production costs is because groundwater charges, the cost of installing drinking water pipes on municipal land, tap water taxes and VAT are also passed on.

Use concerns the extraction of water from the environment, the efficient use of water and the treatment of wastewater. Less surface water and groundwater is being extracted. In 2024, a total of 346 cubic metres of fresh surface water was extracted per person, down from 356 in 2023. This fall was primarily because power stations used less cooling water in 2024 due to reduced electricity production (nearly 7 percent less than in 2023). The Netherlands is home to many companies that use large volumes of cooling water. Cooling increasingly involves the use of saline surface water (sea water). Nevertheless, the use of fresh surface water (water from rivers and lakes) for cooling remains a major factor in extraction per capita. Water used for economic activities is mainly extracted from groundwater and surface water. The total quantity of groundwater extracted is closely correlated with weather conditions, particularly in the agriculture sector. On a per capita basis, a relatively large volume of groundwater was extracted in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. These were years marked by dry summers, which led to significantly higher groundwater consumption by agriculture and drinking water companies. The years 2021, 2023 and 2024 were wetter, which resulted in less groundwater being extracted during those years.

The use of water for economic purposes is becoming ever more efficient. Water productivity is increasing. The combined water productivity of agriculture, industry and services continued to rise in 2024, achieving a level of 132 euros of value added per cubic metre. This increase was due in part to another wet year and a further reduction in water used for cooling.

Water consumption by households and businesses generates wastewater. The efficiency of the treatment of urban wastewater (with respect to nitrogen and phosphorus compounds) is an indicator of the effectiveness of the water treatment process. In 2024, 84 percent of nitrogen compounds and 87 percent of phosphorus compounds were removed from urban waste water. The combination of the extraction of water from the environment and the discharge of wastewater places a burden on the environment.

Outcomes relate to the impact that water consumption has on the available reserves, the quality of water in nature and the quality of drinking water. In 2024, 15.3 percent of water was extracted from the available fresh water sources. Although there is a stable trend in terms of water stress, there has been a decline since 2022. This is primarily due to the reduced extraction of fresh surface water and groundwater, linked to an increase in the use of saline surface water for cooling in the energy sector. Water stress is the ratio between the total volume of fresh water extracted by all sectors of the economy and the total volume available from renewable fresh water sources. This calculation takes into account the minimum amount of fresh water resources required to maintain the aquatic environment.

Although the quality of water in the natural environment is unsatisfactory , the biodiversity that is dependent on that water is increasing. The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) provides guidelines for the assessment of ecological water quality (indicating a body of water’s suitability as a habitat for algae, aquatic plants, fish and macrofauna) and chemical water quality. This monitor focuses on the surface area rather than the number of water bodies. The percentage of the total surface area of water of good ecological quality fluctuates, but remains small (3.0 percent in 2025). Nevertheless, many small bodies of water do meet the standard for good ecological quality set out in the WFD: approximately 15 percent met the directive’s requirements in 2024, based on the number of bodies of water. In 2025, the proportion of the total area of fresh surface water that met the chemical quality standard was 0.5 percent. If the limit for at least one of the chemical substances or groups of substances being assessed is exceeded in a water body, the chemical quality standard is not met for that water.

Pollution due to nitrogen compounds in surface water (such as nitrates and ammonium) was 6.4 kilograms per inhabitant in 2023. There were high levels of precipitation in 2023, which resulted in significant leaching and run-off from agriculture, natural soils and sewers. As a result, a relatively large amount of nitrogen was discharged into the surface water.

Many animal species in the Netherlands are largely or entirely dependent on the water quality of rivers, lakes, canals and ditches. The populations of 176 species of fish, breeding birds, amphibians, dragonflies, mammals and butterflies that are characteristic of these ecosystems are growing. The reasons for these increases are varied and differ for each group of species. In 2025, a different counting method was used for a large number of dragonfly species. This has resulted in a less positive picture of population trends than in the previous publication, although the trend remains positive.

The quality of bathing water in inland bodies of water is no longer constant and is declining. The quality of bathing water is measured annually by the European Environmental Agency (EEA). In 2025, 70.4 percent of natural bathing water in the Netherlands was rated ‘excellent’. The proportion of bathing water in the Netherlands rated as ‘excellent’ is neither high nor low compared to other EU countries (16th out of 25 EU countries in 2024).

Subjective assessment concerns people’s level of satisfaction with drinking water and the quality of water in the natural environment. In 2022, customers of water companies gave the quality of their drinking water a high rating, with an average score of 8.6.