Headwater-to-Consumer Drinking Water Security Assessment Framework and Associated Indicators for Small Communities.

Abstract:

Drinking water insecurity in rural, remote, or otherwise marginalized (RRM) communities in Canada is pervasive and complex with multiple dimensions and impacts. RRM communities face challenges such as poor source water quality, lack of resources, inappropriate drinking water treatment technologies, lack of training facilities/qualified personnel, lack of proper maintenance, ineffective governance structures, and so on. Currently, decision-making frameworks or tools have not been reported in literature that are appropriate for RRM communities and designed to respond to these specific drinking water security challenges. Thus, the main objective of this study is to introduce a decision-making framework to enhance drinking water security from headwater to consumer in the context of RRM communities.

An indicator-based framework has been developed to evaluate the current status, prioritize actions and investments, and aid in decision-making to enhance local drinking water security in RRM communities. A thorough review of community level indices has been conducted, and a list of relevant indicators has been consolidated, for each element of drinking water security. The relevant indicators have been prioritized, informed by the frequency of their use in the literature and previous research by authors.

Indicators and indices can simplify the modeling process and provide results in a format that is accessible to decision-makers in RRM communities. Thus, this type of assessment tool may also encourage community engagement in the decision-making process. Some general remarks on the standard and specific questions that can be used for evaluation are also provided. Finally, the most common methods used in literature for aggregation of the indicators in decision making processes are discussed.