with the theme ‘water and sustainable development’, the year 2015 provided an important opportunity to consolidate and build upon the previous world water days to highlight water's role in the sustainable development agenda. the millennium development goals (mdgs) were to have been achieved by 2015, so the year lent itself to discussions of the post-mdg period and aspirations for water and sustainable development. with the launch of the sustainable development goals (sdgs), world water day gave specific emphasis to sdg 6, which calls for water and sanitation for all, by encouraging discussion of how sdg 6 could be achieved by 2030.