Child mortality and water stress under the framework of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Evidence from twenty developing countries

Abstract

Both child mortality and water stress are included into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Existing studies have explored the relationship between child mortality and water stress with different perspectives, however, the results vary due to differences in methods and context. There is still insufficient cross-country comparative research on the association between child mortality and water stress under the framework of SDGs. This article uses data of 20 developing countries to explore the association between child mortality and water stress, based on the path analysis methodology. The results show that in term of statistics, the level of water stress is negatively but insignificantly associated with child mortality in developing countries. This unconventional result is explained by a number of possible reasons such as high reliance on food importation in some developing countries, and also the indirect link between water stress and child mortality via a country’s socioeconomic development (measured by national poverty rate). The results enrich scientific knowledge of and provide practical implications to the interactions between SDGs.