Optimizing drinking water safety in Cambridge Bay, NU using water quality sampling and participatory system dynamics

Abstract

Arctic communities face unique challenges in accessing clean, safe drinking water. In Nunavut, these issues are particularly severe due to a lack of water quality data, limited operator capacity, and outdated policies. New strategies are needed to improve drinking water safety in Arctic communities. Water safety planning (WSP) is a risk management approach that considers both quantitative and qualitative hazards related to drinking water and involves stakeholder participation. Participatory systems dynamics (PSD) is a method used to address complex health issues and aligns well with Indigenous knowledge. Additionally, PSD can help evaluate strategies to improve decision-making. The two main objectives of this study were to (1) identify water quality hazards in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, and (2) assess whether water safety hazards could be identified, characterized, and prioritized using WSP risk matrices and PSD. The study aimed to integrate these tools by using hazard data to develop a model and simulate high-level mitigation strategies for improving drinking water safety. Water sampling identified several water safety hazards, including low chlorine residuals and microbial activity in cisterns and at taps, elevated disinfection byproducts throughout the system, and the presence of lead and copper in some buildings. Data from stakeholder groups revealed concerns about source water quality and quantity, infrastructure condition, and stakeholder-specific issues, such as limited regulatory capacity. Limited data reduced the effectiveness of standard WSP risk assessment methods, which rely on past frequency data to predict future events. Nonetheless, this approach identified potential water safety improvements, including the implementation of treatment barriers and monitoring measures. PSD modelling proved more flexible and adaptable in capturing interactions among infrastructure, operations, the natural environment, governance, and sociocultural factors, but it increased complexity, making it more difficult to implement or use across multiple communities. Despite these individual limitations, by combining WSP and PSD four potential options to improve water safety in Cambridge Bay were identified. This is the first study to collect comprehensive water quality data from source to tap in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and to gather meaningful qualitative information on water safety hazards from community stakeholders. Additionally, it is the first to examine water safety from a systems dynamics perspective.