Drinking water

• Number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves.
• Drinking water advisories in Canada.
• Percentage of municipalities across Canada with sustained drinking water advisories per year.
• Percentage of households reporting a boil water advisory in their area in the past 12 months.
• Water use by households and industries.

Each of the components of this indicator is measured differently.

Number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves

Data on the number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves come from Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). ISC supports First Nations communities in establishing their own drinking water quality monitoring programs and provides related funding through its Community-Based Water Monitor program. ISC records when drinking water advisories are issued and when they become a long-term drinking water advisory. A long-term drinking water advisory is a drinking water advisory that has been in place for more than a year.

For more information, please refer to Ending long-term drinking water advisories and About drinking water advisories from Indigenous Services Canada.

Drinking water advisories in Canada

Drinking water advisories are public health protection messages about real or potential health risks related to drinking water. These indicators provide a long-term view of why boil water advisories are issued. They also show the relationship between community size and the frequency of boil water advisories.

Drinking water advisories in Canada are based on data from various agencies and jurisdictions across Canada using or sharing information with the Canadian Network for Public Health Intelligence Drinking Water Advisories application. The data do not currently represent all jurisdictions. However, the results are representative of key drinking water needs and issues in Canada.

The indicators on drinking water advisories in Canada provide a long-term view of the main reasons why boil water advisories are issued, namely:

• due to the detection of Escherichia coli (E. coli), which suggests the possible presence of disease-causing microorganisms in drinking water;
• as a precaution, due to elevated levels of other, non-health-related water quality indicators;
• as a precaution, due to equipment and process-related issues.

These indicators focus on boil water advisories as they are the most common type of drinking water advisory and represent the vast majority of the data (98%). "Do not consume" and "Do not use" advisories represent approximately 2% of advisories each year. Boil water advisories can be considered representative of the general situation in Canada with respect to drinking water advisories.
For more information, please refer to Boil water advisories from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Percentage of municipalities across Canada with sustained drinking water advisories per year

The percentage of municipalities across Canada with sustained drinking water advisories per year is measured from Statistics Canada and Infrastructure Canada's Canada's Core Public Infrastructure Survey (CCPI). A sustained drinking water advisory is defined as one that exceeds 15 days in duration.

Percentage of households reporting a boil water advisory in their area in the past 12 months

The percentage of households reporting a boil water advisory in their area in the past 12 months is measured using data collected from households in Canada's provinces through the Households and the Environment Survey (HES). The survey asks households how many times they were informed of a boil water advisory in the past 12 months. It also collects information on what households did in response to boil water advisories. Data are collected in the HES as follows:

In the past 12 months, were you informed of a boil water advisory for your area?

• Yes
• No

How many times were you informed of a boil water advisory?

What did you do in response to the boil water advisory?

Did you:

• Boil your water
• Use bottled water instead of tap water
• Filter your water before drinking it
• Treat your water with chlorine or water purification tablets
• Other - Specify

Water use by households and industries

This indicator measures water use by households and industries in thousands of cubic metres.

Within Statistics Canada's Canadian System of Environmental-Economic Accounts - Physical Flow Accounts (PFA), the Water Account, produced every two years, describes the use of the natural resource input of water and of water accessed through municipal water supply or irrigation systems by industry, governments, institutions, and households.

The main data source for the Water Account is a set of three Statistics Canada surveys administered as the Industrial Water Use Survey. Various other sources are also used to estimate gross water use by industries and households.

For more information on the Water Account, please consult the Water Use Account in Methodological guide: Canadian System of Environmental-Economic Accounting.

Data used in drinking water indicators originate from various agencies and jurisdictions across Canada.

Number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves

• Indigenous Services Canada: Ending long-term drinking water advisories

Boil water advisories in Canada

• Environment and Climate Change Canada: Boil water advisories

Percentage of municipalities across Canada with sustained drinking water advisories per year

• Statistics Canada and Infrastructure Canada: Canada's Core Public Infrastructure Survey (CCPI)
  • Table 34-10-0209-01 – Municipal owners of potable water assets by drinking water advisories that exceeded 15 days, urban and rural, and population size, Infrastructure Canada

Percentage of households reporting a boil water advisory in their area in the past 12 months

• Statistics Canada: Households and the Environment Survey (HES)
  • Table 38-10-0277-01 – Treatment of main source of water by households, Canada, provinces and Census metropolitan areas (CMA)

Water use by households and industries

• Statistics Canada: Canadian System of Environmental-Economic Accounts - Physical Flow Accounts (PFA)
  • Table 38-10-0250-01 – Physical flow account for water use (× 1,000)

For visuals of data on drinking water advisories in Canada, please refer to Boil water advisories from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

For visuals of data on the number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves, please refer to Ending long-term drinking water advisories from Indigenous Services Canada.

Canadian System of Environmental–Economic Accounts: Water use, 2021 (The Daily, July 11, 2024)

Survey of Drinking Water Plants, 2021 (The Daily, November 14, 2023)

For key results on drinking water advisories in Canada, please refer to Boil water advisories from Environment and Climate Change Canada.

For key results on the number of long-term drinking water advisories on public systems on reserves, please refer to Ending long-term drinking water advisories from Indigenous Services Canada.