WC142 MayJune 2025 - Magazine - Page 7
Ontario’s non-municipal
drinking water needs better
oversight and support
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NEARLY 3 MILLION ONTARIO RESIDENTS (almost 20 per cent of the
population), as well as many businesses and other facilities, rely
on non-municipal drinking-water supplies for drinking, preparing food, and bathing. While over 98 per cent of all samples
tested from non-municipal drinking-water systems over the past
decade have met the Ontario Drinking Water Quality Standards,
not all water is sampled and tested. “A lack of testing can expose
Ontarians to risks,” says Auditor General Shelley Spence in a
special report tabled in the Legislature.
Owners of non-municipal drinking water systems, including
those regulated by the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks (MECP) or the Ministry of Health (MOH), are
required to sample their drinking water at a prescribed frequency
for testing. However, private wells and surface water intakes that
serve five or fewer residences, which are not considered to be
drinking-water systems, have no testing requirements and are
not included in this 98 per cent. Drinking water systems that do
have testing requirements are generally not required to test for all
contaminants. In addition, not all system owners test their water
as required.
The audit report contains 17 recommendations from the
Office of the Auditor General, for implementation by the two
ministries, and the public health entities they oversee that are
involved in the oversight of non-municipal drinking water.
Spence added, “The United Nations recognizes access to safe
water as a basic human right and one of the 17 United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals adopted by world leaders in
2015. Contaminated drinking water can cause gastrointestinal
illnesses and other potentially serious health effects, which may
result in significant economic costs due to hospitalizations, doctor
visits, lost work days and other related costs. As demonstrated
by the Walkerton crisis, the consequences of Ontarians drinking
unsafe water can be deadly.”
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WATER C AN ADA • M AY/JUNE 2025
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