Water is essential to life. It is also vital to achieving more inclusive and sustainable development. That's why water is at the heart of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in its Goal 6, which aims to guarantee access for all to sustainably managed water supply and sanitation services.

World Water Day is celebrated every year on March 22, and this year's theme is "Water for Peace". For us, it's an opportunity to look at how standards can help improve the situation of people who don't have the water resources they need. Whether it's addressing the loss of billions of liters of drinking water every day through leaking pipes, lead poisoning, or the lack of wastewater treatment, standards can provide practical answers to these problems.

In the agricultural sector, treating and reusing wastewater not only recreates an island of fertility, but also boosts economies and saves communities. The recently published multi-part ISO 16075 standard sets out guidelines for the use of treated wastewater in irrigation. These are just some of the ways in which ISO standards are addressing the world's wastewater problem. Other ISO standards helping organizations to conserve and save water include a two-part standard, ISO 20760, Urban water reuse - Guidelines for centralized water reuse systems, and the ISO 16075 series for the use of treated wastewater in irrigation. These standards are complemented by ISO 46001, Water efficiency management systems - Requirements. ASN has also drawn up standards relating to water issues in Senegal, ranging from drinking water quality (NS 17-033) to mineral water quality (NS ECOSTAND 022, NS ECOSTAND 017), as well as for wastewater discharge treatment (NS 05-061) or groundwater protection through the design of standard sceptic tanks (the NS 17-074 series of standards).