Rural Sanitation and Sustainable Development Analysis from a Bibliometric Perspective Based on Global Scientific Production, Emphasizing Latin America

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Original abstract

A bibliometric analysis is conducted to identify trends, stakeholders, prominent methodologies, and less studied topics in the scientific literature related to rural sanitation and sustainable development, with an emphasis on Latin America. The quantitative, descriptive, and longitudinal bibliometric techniques employed in the current research utilized the Scopus and Web of Science records until early 2026. The three research queries are related to SDG 6, sustainability, technology, performance, and equity and inclusion. The sample was obtained after exporting the metadata and filtering in spreadsheets; the data was exported in. ris format and subsequently analyzed in VOSviewer, considering productivity indicators such as leading production countries, and keyword co-occurrence. The results showed that studies related to SDG 6 started in 2008, showing a moderate increasing trend and then reaching a peak in 2024 (with 5 publications) and thereafter one publication in early 2026. The other series started in 1976, reaching its peak in 2025 (with 19 research papers) and registered four publications so far in 2026. Regarding equity, production started in 2005 and showed an inconsistent trend, reaching five publications in 2024 and three in the current year. The results show that Asia is the leading region in research production—with China and India being the key contributors—and outpacing the Latin American region, where Brazil, Chile, and Guatemala (in that order) are the most representative countries in research production. Thematically, the technocentric and the economic-normative clusters were the most common; the topics related to governance, operation, and maintenance, post-implementation monitoring, and equity are less studied. It is concluded that rural sanitation sustainability is currently partially studied and unevenly addressed, as the efforts are mainly directed to technical performance and economic viability; this approach fails to consider continuity of the service or inclusion, which limits the link between rural sanitation and sustainability, especially in Latin America.

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