Drinking Water Management and Governance in Canada: An Innovative Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Framework for a Safe Drinking Water Supply

Drinking water management in Canada is complex, with a decentralized, three-tiered governance structure responsible for safe drinking water throughout the country. The current approach has been described as fragmented, leading to governance gaps, duplication of efforts, and an absence of accountabil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental management (New York) 2017-08, Vol.60 (2), p.243-262
Main Authors: Bereskie, Ty, Rodriguez, Manuel J., Sadiq, Rehan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic Pollution
Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution
Canada
Disease Outbreaks - prevention & control
Drinking water
Drinking Water - standards
Earth and Environmental Science
Ecology
Environment
Environmental Management
Forestry Management
Fragmentation
Government Regulation
Humans
Nature Conservation
Outbreaks
Politics
Safety
Threat evaluation
Waste Water Technology
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water resources management
Water supply
Water Supply - legislation & jurisprudence
Water Supply - standards
Waterborne diseases
Waterborne Diseases - prevention & control
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Summary:Drinking water management in Canada is complex, with a decentralized, three-tiered governance structure responsible for safe drinking water throughout the country. The current approach has been described as fragmented, leading to governance gaps, duplication of efforts, and an absence of accountability and enforcement. Although there have been no major waterborne disease outbreaks in Canada since 2001, a lack of performance improvement, especially in small drinking water systems, is evident. The World Health Organization water safety plan approach for drinking water management represents an alternative preventative management framework to the current conventional, reactive drinking water management strategies. This approach has seen successful implementation throughout the world and has the potential to address many of the issues with drinking water management in Canada. This paper presents a review and strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats analysis of drinking water management and governance in Canada at the federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal levels. Based on this analysis, a modified water safety plan (defined as the plan-do-check-act (PDCA)-WSP framework) is proposed, established from water safety plan recommendations and the principles of PDCA for continuous performance improvement. This proposed framework is designed to strengthen current drinking water management in Canada and is designed to fit within and incorporate the existing governance structure.
ISSN:0364-152X
1432-1009
DOI:10.1007/s00267-017-0873-9