Assessing progress on sustainable development goal 6 in the Arab world through performance and visualization analysis

Abstract Sustainable development goal 6 (SDG 6), aimed primarily at ensuring safe drinking water and sanitation for all, stands as the cornerstone of the broader sustainable development goals (SDGs). Progress toward achieving SDG 6 in the Arab world, an area classified as water-scarce, has faced multifaceted challenges arising from climate change, population growth, transboundary dependency, and water governance policies. Given that research dynamics are pivotal indicators of nations’ capacity to innovate, they also show how countries address challenges. This review endeavors to quantify the advancements made toward SDG 6 in the Arab region. The study seeks to identify research interests, trends, scientific trajectories, and major contributors and, consequently, to delineate gaps and provide insights into future perspectives. This involved conducting a comprehensive search within the Scopus database, specifically targeting publications originating from the Arab world. To facilitate this, a pregenerated SDG 6 query utilizing Elsevier’s machine learning model designed for classifying SDGs was employed. The analysis constituted an assessment of different qualitative and quantitative indicators. Visualization resources, specifically VOSviewer applications, were employed to delineate collaboration structures, underline co-citation ties across major knowledge-sharing sources, and recognize primary domains determined by keyword co-occurrence analysis. Thematic evolution and intellectual analyses, conducted via SciMAT software, aimed to determine driving and emerging themes, as well as the uniformity of concepts over the course of time. The analysis identified 7922 documents, constituting 7.4% of the overall global output. Saudi Arabia and Egypt emerged as the leading contributors, with 2494 and 2132 documents, respectively. India, China, and the United States stand out as the most productive non-Arab collaborating countries, with 771, 751, and 707 documents, respectively. King Saud University, Saudi Arabia, emerged as the leading institution, producing 682 documents (8.6%). The study highlights strong regional focus on water security, non-conventional resources, advanced treatment technologies, and growing South–South collaborations, particularly with South and Southeast Asia. The key themes likely to continue shaping future SDG 6-related research in the Arab world involve exploring diverse treatment methods to remove nitrate and sulfate ions from groundwater and addressing water contamination caused by substances such as heavy metals, dyes, industrial waste from the textile industry, and organic pollutants. Key applications involve the utilization of nanocomposite materials, adsorption kinetics, and advanced oxidation techniques, targeting pharmaceutical drugs and antibiotics. Additional themes of interest are the development of effective dye adsorbents, the utilization of photocatalysis for the degradation of organic contaminants, and the exploration of the promise of bioreactors for wastewater treatment. The priorities to further advance SDG 6 in the region are investments that contribute to filling data gaps, leveraging innovative and intelligent technologies, and developing resilient frameworks for water management. Other areas of equal priority include strengthening community participation, enabling water conservation practices, and integrating social sciences into water projects. Holistic strategies must combine water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) with integrated water resources management (IWRM) as the foundation of sustainable progress. Graphical abstract