Water justice is increasingly recognized as central to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), which seeks universal access to safe water and sanitation. Yet persistent injustices in water access, allocation, governance, and participation continue to undermine this goal. Despite growing global attention to and applications of “water justice,” a critical disconnect between understanding and practice highlights the need for a formal review and synthesis of just, equitable, and sustainable water management and governance. In response, we provide a comprehensive review of water justice scholarship published between 2012 and 2023. We systematically review and synthesize insights from 470 peer‐reviewed studies to examine the evolution of water justice concepts, map their alignment with SDG sub‐goals over time, and inventory proposed solutions. Our findings reveal a shift in the literature from an emphasis on distribution and procedural justice to a more recent focus on decolonial, socio‐ecological, and pluralistic approaches to water justice. Our review highlights persistent barriers to water justice, including entrenched power asymmetries, institutional capture, and policy misalignment, while also identifying emerging responses focused on hybrid governance models, co‐production processes, and justice‐oriented social movements. We conclude that further advances in water justice research and practices require greater consideration of structural inequalities, reappraisal of water governance approaches, comparisons of alternative evidence‐based, and context‐specific actions, and an analysis of transformative responses to injustices. This article is categorized under: Human Water > Rights to Water Human Water > Water Governance Human Water > Value of Water

Excessive water use in rice production is a major source of methane emissions, the dominant greenhouse gas from Vietnam's agricultural sector. Improving water‐use efficiency can enhance water security and reduce emissions, but achieving these gains requires substantial changes in farming practices and significant investment in supporting infrastructure. This study provides an economic analysis of low‐water, low‐emission (LWLE) farming techniques, such as Alternate Wetting and Drying and the System of Rice Intensification, and their associated infrastructure requirements. Using survey data from 14,312 rice‐producing households in Vietnam, we evaluate the economic performance of farmers who adopt LWLE practices and those who do not. The results show that producers adopting LWLE not only achieve higher yields than those using traditional farming techniques—and consequently higher revenues—but also incur higher costs and ultimately earn lower profits. In addition, LWLE entails considerable hidden upfront irrigation costs, posing barriers for farmers and limiting smallholder participation. We also undertake a break‐even carbon price analysis to illustrate the economic trade‐offs in reducing one tonne of CO ₂ equivalent through LWLE techniques, and the results suggest that these practices could reduce farmers' vulnerability to future carbon pricing.

Sustainable Development Goal 6.1 seeks universal access to safe drinking water for all by 2030, yet persistent disparities remain even in high-income countries. Indigenous, remote and small communities are disproportionately affected by poor drinking water quality, but comparable evidence to evaluate performance across communities is very limited due to inconsistent monitoring and reporting. To this end, we constructed a community-level meta-panel dataset of 839 communities (4,137 observations) across 4 Australian jurisdictions (Northern Territory, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia) and Ontario, Canada, over the period 2018–2022. Drinking water quality was assessed using the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines and Canadian Boil Water Advisories. Logistic regression was employed to estimate the probability of accessing good-quality drinking water, with Indigenous status, remoteness, population size and socio-economic condition as key explanatory variables. Results reveal systematic disparities: Indigenous and very remote communities are statistically significantly less likely to have good-quality drinking water than non-Indigenous and regional communities after controlling for other factors. Our findings indicate that structural inequities – rather than geographic or demographic variation alone – are critical determinants of poor drinking water outcomes in small, Indigenous communities in both Australia and Canada.