The status of water security in small, rural, and remote communities in Canada: a review

Water security in small, rural, and remote (SRR) communities in Canada is a critical issue with far-reaching implications for public health, social justice, and environmental sustainability. Comprising over 70% of the SRR population in Canada, Indigenous communities are 90 times more at risk of having unclean water as compared to non-Indigenous communities. A multifaceted review of water security in SRR communities was conducted in this study, focusing on different source water types, contamination sources and their distributions across provinces, the associated health and environmental risks, and the annual trends and causes of water advisories.Findings indicate that 80% of SRR communities rely on groundwater, while boil water advisory was the most frequent form of advisory, occurring at a rate 2.5 times higher in Indigenous communities than the national average. In terms of the implementation of source water protection plan (SWPP) to address water security in SRR communities, this study highlights the gaps in regulatory frameworks, policy fragmentations, insufficient resources, roles and responsibilities within water organizations, and lack of collaborative efforts as the key limitations. A five-stage source-to-tap multi-barrier SWPP approach was proposed to address existing gaps by incorporating Indigenous cultural practices, community-based water initiatives, refined decisionmaking processes, and local capacity empowerment for sustainable water security solutions.