As the Millennium Development Goals did earlier, the Sustainable Development Goals have mobilised the international community into what can be the most important, although the most challenging, development goals of the 21st century. However, a main limitation has been that the SDGs considered as a baseline the inaccurate figures that were presented by the UN at the end of the MDGs. These figures were not challenged, not even by the academic community, who in many cases has used them uncritically. As a result, innovative proposals that would improve management of water resources in general and of water supply, sanitation and wastewater management in particular did not emerge, with the consequent negative health and environmental impacts for billions of people globally.

正如千年发展目标先前所做的那样，可持续发展目标已动员国际社会成为21世纪最重要，尽管最具挑战性的发展目标。但是，主要的局限性在于，可持续发展目标将联合国在千年发展目标结束时提出的不准确数字作为基线。这些数字甚至没有受到学术界的挑战，学术界在许多情况下不加批判地使用了它们。结果，没有提出可改善总体水资源管理，尤其是改善供水，卫生和废水管理的创新建议，从而给全球数十亿人的健康和环境带来负面影响。