Water supply and sanitation in Canada
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Canada: Water and Sanitation | ||
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Data | ||
Water coverage (broad definition) | 100% | |
Sanitation coverage (broad definition) | 100% | |
Continuity of supply (%) | 100% | |
Average urban water use (l/c/d) | 343 | |
Average urban water tariff (US$/m3) | ||
Share of household metering | 56% (1999) | |
Share of collected wastewater treated | 97% | |
Annual investment in WSS | n/a | |
Share of self-financing by utilities | partial | |
Share of tax-financing | partial | |
Share of external financing | none | |
Institutions | ||
Decentralization to municipalities | Full | |
National water and sanitation company | No | |
Water and sanitation regulator | Yes, in some provinces | |
Responsibility for policy setting | Department of Environment and Department of Health | |
Sector law | No (only for water resources) | |
Number of urban service providers | ||
Number of rural service providers | n/a |
Water supply and sanitation in Canada is nearly universal and generally of good quality. It is a municipal responsibility under the regulation of the provincial governments, in partnership with the federal government. Water use in Canada is high compared to Europe, since water tariffs are low and 56% of users are not metered.
Despite a commitment by the federal government to promote increased cost recovery, only 50% of the cost of maintaining and operating water infrastructure is actually being recovered from users through tariffs, the rest being financed through taxes.
Contents |
[edit] Access and service quality
Access to water supply in Canada is nearly universal. Concerning sanitation, nearly 75% of Canadians are serviced by municipal sewer systems. The remaining 25 percent of the Canadian population is served by septic disposal systems[1]
[edit] Service quality
[edit] Water supply
Canadian drinking water supplies are generally of excellent quality and supply is continuous.[2]
On occasion, however, despite the best efforts of water suppliers and in some cases for reasons beyond their control, municipal water supplies can become contaminated either chemically or biologically. If this occurs, residents typically are advised to take precautionary measures, such as boiling water before consuming it.[3] In an average year, some 500 boil water advisories normally of 3 to 4 day durations, are issued in respect to municipal water supply services, often following severe environmental conditions affecting the quality of the water supply source.[4]
An unusually extreme case of poor water quality has been The Walkerton Tragedy, a series of events that accompanied the contamination of the water supply of Walkerton, Ontario, by E. coli bacteria in 2000. In 2001 a similar outbreak in North Battleford, Saskatchewan caused by the protozoan Cryptosporidium affected at least 5,800 people.
[edit] Sanitation
In 1999, 97% of the Canadian population on sewers received some form of wastewater treatment. The remaining 3% of Canadians served by sewage collection systems were not connected to wastewater treatment facilities in 1999 and discharged their untreated sewage directly into receiving water bodies.[5]
[edit] Link to water resources
While Canada has lots of fresh water (7% of the world's renewable freshwater), this water is not always available where needed. With 85% of the population living along the southern border with the United States and most of the country's fresh water draining to the north it is not surprising that those drainage basins with higher freshwater use to availability ratios are also located in southern Canada.
The drainage area of greatest concern is the South Saskatchewan, Missouri and Assiniboine-Red area. Flows in the South Saskatchewan are fully allocated and predictions of glacial retreat and reduced winter snow coverage due to global warming may significantly impact a river system that relies on glacial and snow melt for most of its summer flows.[6]
Municipal water supply accounts for 12% of water use in Canada. The other main water users are cooling water for power generation (64%), manufacturing (14%) and agriculture (9%).[7]
[edit] Water use
Residential consumers in Canada used 343 litres per person per day, or roughly twice as much per person as in other industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States.[8]
According to the Federal Environment Department the following sectors account for the following shares of municipal water use:
- 52% residential users
- 19% commercial users
- 16% industrial users
- 13% leakage.[9]
However, a different part of the same web site of Environment Canada states that leakage losses are actually much higher at “up to 30%”.[10]
See also: Non-revenue water
[edit] Standards
The Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality of 1968 set guidelines for drinking water quality standards in Canada, developed by Health Canada with the provincial and territorial governments and setting out the maximum acceptable concentrations of these substances in drinking water. The drinking water guidelines are designed to protect the health of the most vulnerable members of society, such as children and the elderly. The guidelines set out the basic parameters that every water system should strive to achieve in order to provide the cleanest, safest and most reliable drinking water possible.[11]
Three Canadian provinces require all public water supplies to be disinfected, while other provinces require disinfection only for surface water supplies.[12]
[edit] Responsibility for water supply and sanitation
While the responsibility for water supply and sanitation in Canada lies with municipalities, the provincial governments and the federal government also have important responsibilities related to the setting of standards, research, economic regulation and water resources management. As all levels of government hold key policy and regulatory levers which apply to water and sanitation, a central challenge is to ensure that these levers are developed and used collaboratively.
[edit] Policy and regulation
[edit] Provinces and territories
The governing of drinking water in Canada falls under provincial/territorial jurisdiction. The provinces and territories are responsible for developing and enforcing all legislation pertaining to municipal and public water supplies including their construction and operation.[13]
Each province also has a public utility commission or board for the economic regulation of utilities. In many, but not in all provinces, these bodies also regulate tariffs and service quality of water and sewer utilities.[14]
Under the Constitution Act, 1867, the provinces are "owners" of the water resources and have wide responsibilities in their day-to-day management.[15] Each province has its own legislation related to water resources, water supply and the environment.
[edit] The Federal Government
The federal government has certain specific responsibilities relating to water, such as fisheries and navigation, as well as exercising certain overall responsibilities such as the conduct of external affairs.
Within the federal government, over 20 departments and agencies have responsibilities for freshwater.[16]
The 1987 Federal Water Policy, which remains valid today, has two main goals with respect to water: To protect and enhance the quality of the water resource and to promote the wise and efficient management and use of water
The Canada Water Act (proclaimed on September 30, 1970) provides the framework for cooperation with provinces and territories in the conservation, development, and utilization of Canada's water resources. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999, completes the framework for the protection and of water resources.
Environment Canada is the federal department (Ministry) in charge of conserving and protecting Canada's water resources.
Health Canada is the federal department in charge of protecting the health of all Canadians by developing the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality in partnership with the provinces and territories.
[edit] Service provision
Service provision is the responsibility of municipalities. A few municipalities have delegated service provision to private companies or to public companies owned by Provinces.
For example, the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA), a Crown agency of the Province of Ontario, provides operation, maintenance and management services for more than 450 water and wastewater treatment facilities in the province on behalf of about 200 Ontario municipalities.[17]
Overall there are approximately 9,000 public water and sanitation systems in the country. These include about 2,500 municipally owned water and sewer utilities in urban areas and approximately 6,500 small privately owned and operated systems providing public services in or at trailer parks and recreational facilities such as camp grounds, golf courses and ski facilities, etc. Some 300,000 Canadians were directly employed in the operation of these municipal services in the late 1990s, and although statistics are not available for those employed in the private supplier sector, it is likely to be to the same order.[18]
The Canadian Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA), established in 1986, is a non-profit national body representing the common interests of Canada’s public sector municipal water and wastewater services and their private sector suppliers and partners. CWWA is recognized by the federal government and national bodies as the national voice of this public service sector.[19]
[edit] Tariffs and cost recovery
[edit] Tariff structure
In 1999, 44% of Canadian residences served by municipal water systems were not metered.[20] A 2001 study of rate structures by Environment Canada showed that in 1999, 43 percent of the population was under a flat rate structure where the charge or assessment is fixed, regardless of the amount of water used. Another 12 percent were under a declining block rate structure (where the consumer's bill rises at a slower rate as higher volumes of water are used); i.e., the more you use, the less you pay per unit. Thus 55% of Canadians faced residential water use charges that discouraged water conservation. Water use was 70% higher when consumers face flat monthly rates rather than volume-based rates.
Only about 45 percent of the population served was found to be under a rate structure that provided an incentive to conserve water: 36 percent were under a constant rate structure (where the bill to the consumer climbs uniformly with the volume used); and 9 percent were under an increasing block rate structure (where a successively higher price is changed as larger volumes of water are used).[21]
[edit] Tariff level
The price Canadians pay for water varies significantly across the country. Analysis of the 1999 Municipal Water Pricing Survey prepared in 2001 indicates that the average domestic water user (assuming 25 000 litres per month) pays CAN$1.14 for 1000 litres. This value has increased substantially in recent years from about 82 cents per 1000 litres in 1991, and nationally, now includes a waste treatment component of about 39%.[22] The Municipal Water and Wastewater Survey covered over 1200 Canadian municipalities..[23]
Full list of water and sewer rates in Canada by municipality
[edit] Cost recovery
According to the 1987 federal water policy the federal government is committed to the concept of "a fair value for water." To implement this concept in federal policies, programs and initiatives, the federal government has committed, among other things, to endorse the concept of realistic pricing as a direct means of controlling demand and generating revenues to cover costs.[24]
Nevertheless, in 1999 only 50% of the cost of maintaining and operating water infrastructure was actually being met through cost recovery from users of the systems.[25]
[edit] Investment and financing
According to the National Round Table on the Environment and Economy, unmet water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Canada were CAN$38-49 billion in 1996, and capital costs for the following 20 years would be in the order of CAN$70-90 billion.
It was estimated that in the late 1990s the total annual operating cost of water and sanitation services were greater than US $2.75 billions while the revenue generated from user fees is to the order of US $ 2.1 billions. The difference is made up from general municipal revenues (e.g., property taxes or subsidies from senior levels of government).[26]
The greatest portion of investment in water and sanitation infrastructure and services has been financed by municipal governments from revenues derived from general property taxes or from water and sanitation charges which are increasingly moving to the state of full cost pricing. All Provinces and Territories provide funds via transfers to the municipal governments in their jurisdictions. The federal contribution, while significant in absolute terms (for example, in the period 1993 to 1998 the amount was in excess of US $1.4 billion), represents only a small proportion of total public investments in municipal infrastructure.[27]
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Health Canada
- ^ CWWA
- ^ WH0
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Canada Environment
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Health Canada
- ^ CWWA
- ^ CWWA
- ^ For a list of regulatory commission see CAMPUT
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ "Key Ontario water agency listed up for grabs despite government denials," Canadian Press NewsWire, June 8, 2000
- ^ WHO
- ^ CWWA
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ 1987 Federal Water Policy
- ^ Environment Canada
- ^ WHO
- ^ WHO
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