Domestic Water Consumption, 1999

Can you imagine a city without water? We use it for drinking, cooking, and for other household needs. In 1998, Canadians, on average, used 343 litres of water per person per day. Water is also needed to clean our streets, fight fires, fill public swimming pools, and water lawns and gardens. And then, where would this water go without a sewerage system? It is not surprising that some of the oldest infrastructure built by human society consisted of aqueducts and sewerage systems. Even in Canada, many cities still use parts of water systems that were built not long after the cities were first settled.

Municipal water use refers to all water supplied by a municipality for its residents, businesses and industries. Although municipal water use is a small part of water consumption in Canada (just 11% of all withdrawals for 1991), it is the most visible use for most Canadians.

Sources of Municipal Water

Across Canada, nearly all of the water used by municipal water systems comes from lakes and rivers, the remainder (12% of the total) comes from groundwater. In many places, water is distributed through a series of pipes connected to a municipal water supply system. In smaller centres and in rural areas, it is usually obtained from wells. Water supply systems typically have intake, treatment, storage, and distribution components. Rural residents usually have individual groundwater supplies. Wells must be carefully prepared and maintained to prevent pollution.

In some remote areas, water is delivered by trucks. For example, in the far North, water may have to be trucked to homes that do not have conventional water supplies because the ground is frozen. Water is also delivered by truck in some rural areas where shallow wells tend to go dry.

Where there are piped systems in the North, the pipes are often buried well below the surface (up to 3 or 4 metres down) to get below the worst of the frost. The pipes are also insulated to prevent the water from freezing.

In permafrost areas, there is a different problem. The heat lost from even insulated underground pipes would melt the permafrost and cause the ground to cave in. Therefore, above-ground utilidors (insulated boxes) are used to carry water pipes and sewer pipes to individual residences. These pipes may also carry hot water for heating. The utilidors are heated, insulated, metal or wood-clad enclosures that are generally installed on piles or blocking.

Cost of Water

Establishing and maintaining water systems is costly. There are three major costs:

• Water supply: Water usually has to be pumped, stored, moved and treated to make it available in safe form for consumers. It then has to be taken away after use. At all of these stages, infrastructure is needed.
• Infrastructure maintenance: Maintenance includes on-going maintenance, but also periodically being upgrading and being increased in capacity.
• Administration: There are numerous overhead costs in running a water system.

Water prices across Canada are generally low compared to other countries. Based on 1996 data, the average household pays $27.65 per month, and uses about 30 000 litres per month, for water delivered to the residence. Monthly bills range between $15 and $90, the lowest being in Quebec, Newfoundland, and British Columbia, and the highest in the Prairie provinces and northern Canada.

Although the operating costs for trucked-in water service are very high, the lower capital costs make it more economic than piped service for most northern communities. Consumption is much lower for areas with trucked service, about 200 litres per capita per day in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Patterns and Trends in Municipal Water Use

Figure 1 shows user-categories for municipal water use in Canada as a whole. The majority of consumption is done by residences. In fact, residential use is larger than shown here as the "commercial" category includes consumption by apartment buildings. Note that a disturbing 13% of water provided is lost through leakage.

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Figure 1. Municipal Water Use by Sector, 1994

Figure 2 gives a further breakdown of the residential sector in order to show how people use water within a house. Personal washing and toilet use make up about two-thirds of the total. It is not surprising that water conservation programs have focussed on these uses, stressing new technology such as lower-capacity toilets, and water-saving shower heads.

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Figure 2. Residential Water Use in Canada, 1999

Figure 3 shows trends in municipal water use over time. The data shows results of surveys conducted periodically, at the years shown. The total water use is made up of data from municipalities that responded to the survey in a given year plus a regional estimate for municipalities that did not supply data (or were not surveyed). Details are given in the State of the Environment (SOE) Technical Supplement noted as a source.

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Figure 3. Daily Municipal Water Use per Person, 1983 to 1999

In Figure 3, the user can see that daily per capita water use in the municipal sector declined by almost 10% in the period 1989 to 1996 (from 694 litres to 628 litres). After 1996, consumption climbed slightly due in part to piped water systems replacing some groundwater-based systems. The figure was 638 litres per person per day in 1999.

Although water usage rates vary across Canada, the overall per capita use is very high compared to that in other industrialized countries. Only the United States has higher rates of municipal water usage.

• Agricultural Water Consumption/Irrigation Map | Read about this map
• Commercial and Institutional Water Consumption, 1999 Map | Read about this map
• Industrial Water Consumption, 1999 Map | Read about this map
• Hydroelectric Generation Map | Read about this map

• Freshwater
• Water Consumption
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