SDG 6 on clean water and sanitation provides a unique opportunity to accelerate progress on the 2030 Agenda due to the central role of water in advancing human rights, reducing poverty and inequality and enabling peace, justice and sustainability in all its dimensions. The crosscutting importance of water and sanitation in achieving the SDGs is recognized in the UN-Water SDG 6 Synthesis Report 2018 and further explored in three regional policy papers in 2019 (Africa, Arab Region, Latin America and the Caribbean). Identifying and understanding the interlinkages between SDG 6 and other SDGs is critical for increasing policy coherence and effectiveness at regional and national scales, and for facilitating integrated implementation of the 2030 Agenda. This side event will focus on the critical role of water in the realization of the SDGs under review at the HLPF 2019.