Despite some gains on SDG 6.1 (access to clean and affordable water for all), the world is falling behind. One out of four people lack access to water. In addition to increased funding, a deeper understanding of experienced water shortages (invisible in global metrics) is crucial. 1. Global monitoring frameworks like the JMP of the UN and WHO should include a focus on links between water access and informal settlements. 2. Local governments and international development agencies should fund research co-created with local communities on water governance. 3. Local governments should play a strong role to ensure affordable and clean water for the urban poor communities. Such knowledge could contribute towards the success of SDG 6.1.

Although privatisation in Metro Manila has resulted in increased access to piped connections and reduced pilferage, the urban poor pay more for low-quality water and access it through small-scale providers including cooperatives and syndicates. While forming cooperatives can represent efforts of urban poor communities to claim legality, the selling of water to neighbours or offering protections for pilfering by local providers illustrates everyday illegality. Governing logics of the postcolonial state and concessionaires shape these Janus-faced survival practices of urban poor communities.

Recent trends reveal a significant increase in the use of violence to generate profit as illustrated during the sanitary crisis. The Economies of Violence, understood as the actions or behaviors leading to a financial benefit to the detriment of another person, organization, or institution, are therefore detrimental to better apprehend as a concept and phenomenon. Hence, addressing this violence requires an examination of the multiple forms it may take in all fields of the economy and their evolution across time and space.