Canada's National Environmental Indicator Series 2003

Daily per capita municipal water use (litres per person)

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Meter Calculation

Percent change in per capita municipal water use between 1991 and 1999.

Indicator content	Supporting indicators
• Context • Indicators • Actions • Linkages • Challenges • Home	• Total daily municipal water use • Canadian municipal population with and without water meters

Context

Canadians are among the highest water users in the world, using roughly twice as much per person as in other industrialized countries, with the exception of the United States. Water in Canada is used for many purposes, including municipal use, agriculture, thermal power generation, manufacturing, and mining. Of all surface water and groundwater withdrawn in Canada, 11% is used by municipalities. High water use results in many different impacts, such as high costs for supplying drinking water, treating wastewater, and maintaining or upgrading infrastructure and changes in water levels and water quality, which have direct impacts on aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity, human health, and water shortages. From 1994 to 1999, about 26% of Canadian municipalities reported water shortages at one time or another as a result of drought, infrastructure problems, or growing consumption.

Indicators

Water used daily, per person, for all municipal sectors declined by 4% between 1991 and 1999. During this period, total daily municipal water use increased by 5%, largely reflecting the increase in municipal population. Residential water use accounts for more than half of all municipal water use. One of the key factors explaining high residential consumption rates is the lack of financial incentive to Canadian households to use less water. For instance, in 1999, unmetered households, which pay a flat rate for water, used 50% more water than metered households, which pay for water by volume used. About 57% of Canada's municipal population had water meters in 1999, showing a gradual increase since 1991.

Total daily municipal water use (billions of litres per day)

Technical supplements | Data (in HTML)

Canadian municipal population with and without water meters (percent)

Metering encourages conservation
Unmetered households, which pay a flat rate for water, use 50% more water than metered households, which pay for water by volume used (based on 1999 data).

Technical supplements | Data (in HTML)

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Actions

In 1994, the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment approved a National Action Plan to Encourage Municipal Water Use Efficiency. The plan guides governments and municipalities in ways to achieve greater water efficiencies and decrease capital expansion and operating costs. The Government of Canada has established a $200-million Green Municipal Investment Fund and a $50-million Green Municipal Enabling Fund, both administered by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities in support of environmental projects, including those that increase the environmental efficiency and cost effectiveness of existing municipal water and wastewater systems. In 2000, the federal government announced the Infrastructure Canada Program, which will invest $2.65 billion over six years to support green municipal infrastructure projects, including municipal water and wastewater treatment.

Linkages

Reduced municipal water use decreases the need for increasing the capacity of water treatment infrastructure and lowers the energy needed to build and operate the infrastructure. Reduced municipal water use also renders wastewater treatment more efficient and reduces the need to increase the capacity of wastewater treatment infrastructure. Water use is linked to the issue of climate change, because global warming will result in some areas becoming more prone to drought and water shortages - a small increase in temperature will have an impact by causing a significant increase in water evaporation, even in areas expected to experience a slight increase in precipitation.

Challenges

Canadian municipal water prices are currently among the lowest in the world and cover roughly half the municipal costs of supplying water and treating wastewater. Many municipalities are lagging behind in upgrading water management plans and infrastructure. In the face of the growing need for water and the potential for conflict among users, Canada must find ways both to protect water quality and to use water more efficiently. Increasing the efficiency of water use will involve moving from traditional supply management to demand management, including applying higher water prices and pricing water according to the volume used. Further research is needed into the potential impacts of climate change on the quantity and quality of Canada's supplies of fresh water. Related to the indicators themselves, the survey that generates the data is being revamped, which may make it difficult to compare indicator results with those from previous years. On the other hand, more rigorous definitions will improve the accuracy and completeness of the information presented.

Websites of interest

Environmental Signals: National Indicator Series 2003 Home

Introduction

Highlights

Meter description

Ecological life-support systems

Human health and well-being

Natural resources sustainability

Human activities

Conclusions

Technical supplements

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