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Water systems, sanitation, and public health risks in remote communities: Inuit resident perspectives from the Canadian Arctic
... For each of the following issues, please rate how well your community is currently able to address them by clicking on the circles below. (Check Not Applicable (N/A) , if it does not apply to your community) Land development or resource extraction impacts Inadequate access to high quality drinking water Water infrastructure (water supply and treatment, wastewater treatment, drainage, green infrastructure and water storage) Coastal damage Loss of cultural and intrinsic value of water Loss of spiritual connection to water bodies Addressing connections and interdependencies among water, energy, climate, food security, health and other issues (e.g., interactions among hydroelectric generation and water supplies) Needs Assessment for Indigenous Involvement in the Network of Networks (NoN) : National Questionnaire of Indigenous Communities Part 4: Needs for Water and Climate Change17. Please indicate the extent to which you agree with the following statements about your community's ability for engaging in water and climate monitoring, knowledge gathering, data use, and sharing, by clicking on the circle(s) below. ...
... 3 Adequate availability of time for effective and meaningful participation in activities related to environmental monitoring. 10,16,17 The full range of processes and the architecture of programs for collecting, storing/archiving, sharing and analyzing/using environmental information (including Ws and ITK). The systems will be highly dependent on the types of information sought (see "Relevance"). ...
... Education and Training Systems 2,5,16,17 Programs for developing the capacities within individuals to conduct environmental monitoring within the context of the NoN. ...
Environment Canada’s Network of Network (NoN) is defined as a “principles based, multi-participant, collaborative approach to [environmental] monitoring”. The NoN seeks to be a nation-wide, long-term initiative that involves a diverse range of members and enhances the capacity of all parties to collect, manage, share and use environmental data and information to enhance decision making. To maximize the NoN’s benefit nationally, the architecture of the program will need to recognize Canada’s diverse landscape, hydro-climatic regimes, socio-cultural and economic needs for water and climate information, which includes Indigenous communities. The NoN represents a unique opportunity to support Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit people of Canada) nationally with efforts to achieve a greater understanding of hydroclimatic conditions, impacts, changes and management effectiveness relevant to Indigenous environmental stewardship.
Project purpose: To determine what is needed to ensure that indigenous communities can participate in, and derive value from, the collection, management, sharing and use of water and climate monitoring information for water stewardship through the NoN.
Project objectives:
1. To learn about needs of Indigenous communities with respect to water and climate monitoring, data management and knowledge-sharing;
2. To learn about the interest and opportunities for engagement with Indigenous communities in NoN;
3. To develop preliminary ideas/recommendations for engaging Indigenous communities in the NoN; and,
4. To develop strategic recommendations for engaging Indigenous communities in the NoN initiative, based on their identified assets, capacities and needs for water and climate monitoring, data management and information sharing.
The involvement of Indigenous communities in the NoN would contribute towards building capacity in monitoring and evidence-based decision making for enhancing water stewardship at the community level across Canada. The access to knowledge, information and resources, as well as opportunities to share knowledge with network members are key factors that are essential in achieving urgent water stewardship objectives, such as drinking water provisioning, source water protection, flood and drought impact mitigation, and ecological stewardship.
These objectives were achieved using a combination of a systematic literature review and engagement with Indigenous communities from across Canada through a community questionnaire and interviews. Key findings from these research inputs are summarized below. Respondents represented a geographically and linguistically diverse cross-section of Indigenous communities across Canada; although the number of responses was not sufficiently large to represent all potential Indigenous contexts. With support from a Project Advisory Group, the intent of this work was to develop a set of key recommendations for Indigenous engagement with the NoN that addresses the shared objectives of ECCC and Indigenous communities, while honoring critical differences in the character and value of Western Science (Ws) and Indigenous Traditional Knowledge (ITK).
... Further, research with Indigenous communities in Canada demonstrates that differences in perception of water quality may be the result of different worldviews and understandings of water health (Lebel and Reed 2010;White et al. 2012; see also Yates et al. 2017). For example, Indigenous communities in studies by Goldhar et al. (2013), Daley et al. (2015), and Kot et al. (2015b) expressed a preference for raw water gathered from traditional water sources and for the use of traditional knowledge and practices in ensuring the safety of the water supply. Drinking water perceptions and preferences may also be place specific, tied to the history, cultural significance, and aesthetic qualities of a particular water source coupled with perceptions of various threats to water quality (Hanrahan et al. 2014;Castleden et al. 2015;Kot et al. 2015b). ...
... Finally, colonization and post-colonial systems of government add a further layer of complexity to SDWS governance, compounding the issues generally experienced by SDWS and increasing drinking water risk among Indigenous communities. While only a small number of authors have explicitly identified the practices and processes of colonization as responsible for the systemic drinking water issues experienced by Indigenous communities (see White et al. 2012;Basdeo and Bharadwaj 2013;Daley et al. 2015), many described the: high rates of noncomplying systems or boil water advisories (Patrick 2011); under-provision of infrastructure (Hanrahan et al. 2014;Sarkar et al. 2015); lack of financial, operational, and management capacity for on-reserve systems (Lebel and Reed 2010); limited opportunities for Indigenous participation in decision-making (Grey-Gardner 2008); and fragmented governance responsibilities (Dunn et al. 2014a). Many of these studies have highlighted these concerns in the context of settler colonialism in Canada-our review only identified one article that examined drinking water governance in each of Australian aboriginal communities (Grey-Gardner 2008) and Native American reservations (Jones and Joy 2006). ...
... 3). While Canadian governments have made efforts to invest in Indigenous drinking water infrastructure and review governance frameworks in recent years, these interrelated and systemic causes of drinking water problems in Indigenous communities mean that such problems are difficult to overcome (White et al. 2012;Daley et al. 2015). Existing research on drinking water governance in Indigenous communities in Australia and the USA, while limited, suggests that these complex legacies of colonization are not limited to Canada (Jones and Joy 2006;Wescoat et al. 2007;Grey-Gardner 2008). ...
Small drinking water systems (SDWS) are widely identified as presenting particular challenges for drinking water management and governance in industrialised nations because of their small customer base, geographic isolation, and limited human and financial capacity. Consequently, an increasing number and range of scholars have examined SDWS over the last 30 years. Much of this work has been technocentric in nature, focused on SDWS technologies and operations, with limited attention to how these systems are managed, governed, and situated within broader social and political-economic contexts. This review seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the governance dimensions of SDWS by drawing together existing literature relating to SDWS governance and exploring its key themes, research foci, and emerging directions. This overview is intended to provide guidance to scholars and practitioners interested in specific aspects of SDWS governance and a baseline against which researchers can position future work. The review identified 117 academic articles published in English-language journals between 1990 and 2016 that referred to some aspect of drinking water governance in small, rural, and Indigenous communities in industrialised nations. The articles' content and bibliographic information were analysed to identify the locations, methods, journals, and themes included in research on SDWS governance. Further analysis of SDWS' governance dimensions is organised around four questions identified as central to SDWS research: what governance challenges are experienced by SDWS, and what are their causes, solutions, and effects? Overall, the review revealed that the SDWS governance literature is piecemeal and fragmented, with few attempts to theorise SDWS governance or to engage in interdisciplinary, cross-jurisdictional conversations. The majority of articles examine North American SDWS, retain a technocratic orientation to drinking water governance, and are published in technical or industry journals. Such research tends to focus on the governance challenges SDWS face and proposed solutions to systems' performance, capacity, and regulatory challenges. A small but growing number of studies examine the causal factors underpinning these governance challenges and their socio-spatially differentiated impacts on communities. Looking forward, the review argues for a more holistic, integrative approach to research on SDWS governance, building on a water governance framework.
... Some treatment facilities are challenged with aging infrastructure that was designed to treat acidified surface waters with low color 23 . Those serving small, remote communities-including First Nation and Indigenous communities-may have particular difficulties in this regard [24][25][26][27][28] . ...
... Such plans could inform process design and drinking water source selection. In the Canadian context, this is of particular importance for First Nation and Indigenous communities already challenged with drinking water safety issues [24][25][26][27][28] . Inadequate water treatment infrastructure and operational issues make such communities especially vulnerable to the impacts of brownification. ...
... npj Clean Water (2021)26 Published in partnership with King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals ...
Dissolved organic matter (DOM) concentrations have been increasing in parts of the northern hemisphere for several decades. This process—brownification—often accompanies increasing iron and aluminum, but the metal–DOM interactions these concurrent trends imply are poorly described. Here we used field-flow fractionation with UV and ICP-MS detection to measure the size distribution of colloidal iron, aluminum, manganese, copper, uranium, and chromophoric DOM in six lakes over six months. Five of these lakes have browned to some degree in the past three decades, with linear increases in organic carbon and color ranging from 0.01 to 0.13 mg C L ⁻¹ yr ⁻¹ and 0.13–1.94 PtCo yr ⁻¹ . Browning trends were more pronounced and colloids more abundant in lakes with wetlands in their catchments. Iron and aluminum were present in two primary fractions, sized nominally at 1 and 1000 kDa. The 1 kDa fraction included the primary DOM signal, while the 1000 kDa fraction absorbed minimally at 254 nm and likely represents iron-rich (oxyhydr)oxides. Colloidal manganese was sized at 1000+ kDa, whereas colloidal copper and uranium occurred primarily at 1 kDa. These associations fit with a pattern of increasing DOC, iron, aluminum, and color in the region’s lakes. They represent a significant challenge for drinking water treatment systems, especially those in remote communities. Given that browning trends are expected to continue, monitoring plans would better inform treatment process design and operation by characterizing DOM and iron-rich, primarily inorganic colloids that contribute to adverse water quality outcomes.
... In the majority of communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic, freshwater undergoes basic primary treatment through chlorination before being transported and deposited into the water storage tanks of individual buildings (Medeiros et al., 2017). As such, boil water advisories, and reports of residents running out of water and waiting for water refills (for hours or days), are not uncommon (Daley et al., 2015). Population growth is also expected to impact water availability and increase short-term vulnerability (Bakaic and Medeiros, 2016). ...
... Population growth is also expected to impact water availability and increase short-term vulnerability (Bakaic and Medeiros, 2016). Cultural and personal preferences of Inuit also include drinking untreated water from its source (Daley et al., 2015), especially when traveling out on the land during camping and subsistence activities (Goldhar et al., 2013(Goldhar et al., , 2014. Thus, the concomitance of climate warming and socioeconomic factors emphasize that water security is an increasingly important component of community sustainability (Medeiros et al., 2017). ...
... Water security is achieved through sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water to support drinking water needs, human well-being, ecosystem integrity, and socioeconomic development, as well as protect against water-related hazards and climate change ( UN Water, 2013). Across the North American Arctic, water security challenges remain largely unaddressed and have been reported in Nunavik, Quebec (Martin et al., 2007), Rigolet, Labrador (Goldhar et al., 2014), Coral Harbour, Nunavut (Daley et al., 2015), and much of rural Alaska (Penn et al., 2017). Vulnerability assessments (Ford and Smit, 2004) are often conducted to address climate related impacts within a water security framework, where water resource vulnerability refers to the susceptibility of a system to damage caused by external forces, the sensitivity of the system, and the ability of the system to respond (Kelly and Adger, 2000;Luers, 2005;Plummer et al., 2012). ...
Anthropogenic stressors to freshwater environments have perpetuated water quality and quantity challenges for communities across Arctic Canada, making drinking water resources a primary concern for northern peoples. To understand the ecological trajectory of lakes used as freshwater supply, we conducted a paleolimnological assessment on two supplemental sources in Igloolik, Nunavut, Arctic Canada. A stratigraphic examination of biological indicators (Insecta: Diptera: Chironomidae) allowed for paleotemperature reconstructions with decadal and centennial resolution over the past 2000 years. Between 200 and 1900 CE, the sub-fossil chironomid community was comprised of cold-water taxa, such as Abiskomyia, Micropsectra radialis-type, and Paracladius. Reconstructed temperatures were consistent with known climate anomalies during this period. A rapid shift in the composition of the chironomid assemblages to those with higher temperature optima ( Chironomus anthracinus-type, Dicrotendipes, and Tanytarsus lugens-type) in the late 20th century was observed in both systems. Our results demonstrate that these ecosystems are undergoing marked transformations to warmer, more nutrient-rich environments, and suggest that water sustainability pressures will likely continue in tandem with ongoing climate change. To contextualize the influence of recent warming and elucidate the status of freshwater resources over the longer term, paleolimnological methods can be usefully applied as components of vulnerability assessments.
... In Alaska, infant hospitalization rates for lower respiratory tract infections and documented pneumonia are five times and eleven times the general U.S. infant population, respectively (Hennessy and Bressler, 2016). To reduce the prevalence of these diseases, studies reveal a significant association between the interruption of disease transmission and higher water volumes through in-home water service due to improved hygiene practices (Harper et al., 2011;Brubaker et al., 2011;Dudarev et al., 2013b;Daley et al., 2015;Hennessy and Bressler, 2016). ...
... The typology also illuminates how framings of water security influence how people use water. Many people, especially older generations, have cultural attachment to specific water sources or perceive traditional waters to be more desirable than chlorinated, municipally-supplied water (Goldhar et al., 2014;Daley et al., 2015). Therefore, as traditional water supplies from rivers and ice become more difficult to obtain due to climate change or human activities, the water vulnerability of households that are culturally attached to those waters is increased. ...
... Governments should support household and community efforts to respond and adapt to household water vulnerability due to the dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic as a result of longerterm climatic and demographic shifts. The case studies emphasize that cultural and social characteristics specific to each community must be considered in the design of water systems and the policies that govern them (Daley et al., 2015;Loring et al., 2016). ...
Increasing pressure on water resources from demographic shifts, climate change, and development patterns is affecting water access and water availability in Arctic households. There is an urgent need to improve understanding of the factors that contribute to Arctic household water vulnerability. This paper examines the key conditions or combinations of conditions associated with water access and water availability that collectively impact household water vulnerability in the Arctic based on an analysis of 28 case studies. Five conditions were identified through a literature review as contributing to household water vulnerability: inadequate freshwater policies, inadequate funding, inadequate infrastructure, biophysical variability, and societal changes. We used qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to explore the configurations of these conditions along causal pathways that lead to household water vulnerability. The case studies were grouped into one of three typologies of household water vulnerability: political ecology, water security, or socio-hydrology. Through the analysis, absence of societal change in the Arctic was found to be a necessary condition for the political ecology typology, and the presence of freshwater policies and societal change in the Arctic were observed to be necessary conditions for the socio-hydrology typology. The research reveals how societal changes and anthropogenic factors contribute to household water vulnerability and must be considered in present and future Arctic freshwater policy.
... 3 Many people also consume water from secondary sources such as brooks, lakes, or icebergs or purchase bottled water. The use of gathered or purchased water is related to traditional lifestyle and/or personal preferences associated with aesthetic water quality [3][4][5][6][7] but it is also used as a coping mechanism in communities that experience frequent water shortages. 5 Challenges such as incomplete monitoring, lack of trained personnel, and difficulty maintaining chlorine residual after disinfection further complicate the provision of clean and safe drinking water in Arctic communities. ...
... The use of gathered or purchased water is related to traditional lifestyle and/or personal preferences associated with aesthetic water quality [3][4][5][6][7] but it is also used as a coping mechanism in communities that experience frequent water shortages. 5 Challenges such as incomplete monitoring, lack of trained personnel, and difficulty maintaining chlorine residual after disinfection further complicate the provision of clean and safe drinking water in Arctic communities. 5,8,9 Additionally, climate change has resulted increased temperatures, decreasing permafrost, and, depending on local soil conditions and lake characteristics, increased inputs of phosphorus and other nutrients 10,11 in Arctic regions. ...
... 5 Challenges such as incomplete monitoring, lack of trained personnel, and difficulty maintaining chlorine residual after disinfection further complicate the provision of clean and safe drinking water in Arctic communities. 5,8,9 Additionally, climate change has resulted increased temperatures, decreasing permafrost, and, depending on local soil conditions and lake characteristics, increased inputs of phosphorus and other nutrients 10,11 in Arctic regions. These changes have been linked to potentially negative impacts on environmental and social determinants of Inuit health including food and water security 12 as well as on water and sanitation systems in Arctic regions. ...
Drinking water samples were collected from the water source, water delivery truck, domestic water storage tanks, and at the point of use in a decentralized drinking water system in Pond Inlet, Nunavut, a predominantly Inuit community in Canada’s Arctic region. The samples were analyzed for standard water quality parameters (turbidity, colour, pH, conductivity), biological water quality parameters (coliforms, adenosine triphosphate), and free and total chlorine. The microbial communities in a subset of water and biofilm samples were characterized with DNA analysis. Physiochemical characteristics at the tap were influenced by source water quality and building-specific conditions. Multiple aesthetic water quality parameters were above recommended values including turbidity and colour. Turbidity and biological activity (measured as ATP) varied temporally in some locations. DNA analysis at the phylum, family, and genus level demonstrated that microbial ecology evolved from source water to tap and that individual storage tanks and taps were influenced by distinct microbial communities.
... Waste accumulation from extractive industries and landfilling practices imperils drinking water quality. In a study of the Canadian Arctic and the Canadian territory Nunavut in particular, Daley et al. (2015) note that most of North America relies on wastewater buried conveyance systems, but it's impractical for the Canadian North due to extremely low temperatures. In Nunavut, water storage is separated into two tanks, one for drinking and one for wastewater. ...
... In Nunavut, water storage is separated into two tanks, one for drinking and one for wastewater. Municipal trucks attempt to provide drinking water delivery and wastewater removal daily, which is frequently disrupted by adverse weather (Daley et al., 2015). One engaged community partner, Healthy Waters Labrador, developed a Comprehensive Environmental Management Plan (2012) promulgating six critically important waste issues; of primary concern is the lack of sewage and wastewater treatment facilities in watershed communities and the need for improved management of municipal solid waste. ...
We report results from a two-phase mixed methods research study to illustrate chal- lenges and opportunities of waste management within the rural circumpolar and bo- real regions of Canada. In the qualitative research phase, data were obtained from archives, semi-structured interviews with community partners, an information meeting with a community grassroots organization, and a participatory action meeting to develop a case study of the Labrador waste management system. Like many regions across the world’s boreal belt, the study area consists of a population centre sur- rounded by diffuse, rural communities (many of which are inhabited by Indigenous and First Nations persons), multiple land uses, and complex governance considerations. The area faces harsh climatic conditions (e.g. frigidly cold temperatures and extended winters) that challenge biological processes and organic waste decom- position. These regions are often highly reliant upon natural resources and tempo- rary labour forces to drive economic development, and they bear the environmental consequences of legacy wastes after project closures. In the qualitative research phase, we identify factors contributing to the accrual, management, and transport of inorganic waste across the study region to select a priority waste stream for an economic analysis in the quantitative study phase. In the quantitative phase we build an economic enterprise budget to assess costs associated with converting waste biomass from the construction of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric dam into biochar with either a fast or slow mobile pyrolysis system. We include photos of the study region and we present an Excel-based spreadsheet tool as a supplemental file.
... Social and political deficiencies in a truck-to-cistern system were identified in a Saskatchewan First Nation, that compromised the management of the water system (Lebel and Reed 2010). In addition, differences in cultural and economic approaches to water in Indigenous communities in Canada influence the priorities of community decision makers regarding risk management and intervention development (Daley et al. 2015). The authors add that these approaches are better understood when both quantitative and qualitative data are sought in studies of small, community-based drinking water systems (Daley et al. 2015). ...
... In addition, differences in cultural and economic approaches to water in Indigenous communities in Canada influence the priorities of community decision makers regarding risk management and intervention development (Daley et al. 2015). The authors add that these approaches are better understood when both quantitative and qualitative data are sought in studies of small, community-based drinking water systems (Daley et al. 2015). ...
The provision of safe drinking water is a key driver of public health and a pressing health issue facing First Nations communities in Canada. Contaminated water is a perennial issue for reserve communities across the country despite numerous government investments. Many First Nations communities rely heavily on cistern use for their drinking water supply; however, bacterial contamination within these systems is frequent and a common reason for household boil water advisories. The sources of contamination during the process of hauling water to cisterns in First Nations communities have received limited attention in academic research. The purpose of this research is to identify the risks to water quality through the truck-to-cistern water system. In partnership with a Saskatchewan First Nations community, drinking water quality was monitored in the treatment plant, in delivery trucks and at 142 household cisterns and taps from July to October, 2014. Risks to water supply were identified through monthly water sampling and laboratory analysis, key informant interviews, and observation. Coliform contamination in trucks, cisterns and taps was most common during August. Total coliforms were more likely to be found in cisterns compared to household taps and samples from trucks. Chlorine residuals were lower in household tap samples than in cisterns for August and September. Together with the community, investigators identified contamination and bacteriological growth in cisterns and household distribution systems, and variable levels of total chlorine concentrations depending on month and site of sampling. Recommendations are provided for advancing guidelines on management of truck-to-cistern drinking water supply chains in First Nations.
... Infrastructure design textbooks and manuals, for example, sporadically contain reference to the inclusion of cultural values and rarely contain guidelines for engaging with Indigenous communities (Sandercock 2003;Grant 2010). It is recognized that stakeholder priorities should be integrated into the decision-making process for community infrastructure to promote successful project outcomes, but this inclusion has not been advanced in work with Canadian Indigenous communities (Martin et al. 2007;Richardson et al. 2012;Daley et al. 2015;Black and McBean 2017). ...
... Each reserve community is unique, with varied social, cultural, political, and economic systems. Top-down and one-size-fits-all approaches to fixing water problems on reserves have left a legacy of mistrust and contributed to little measureable progress (Daley et al. 2015;Morrison et al. 2015;Black and McBean 2017). Introducing new approaches including co-design and resulting trust and commitment to collaborations for enhancing water infrastructure on reserves are needed (Castleden et al. 2017). ...
There is movement in engineering fields and in Indigenous communities for enhancement of local participation in the design of community infrastructure. Inclusion of community priorities and unique cultural, spiritual, and traditional values harmonize the appearance, location, and functionality of developments with the social and cultural context in which they are built and contribute to holistic wellness. However, co-design processes that align community values and the technical needs of water facilities are difficult to find. A scoping review was conducted to explore the state of knowledge on co-design of water infrastructure in Indigenous Canada to build a knowledge base from which practices and processes could emerge. The scoping results revealed that articles and reports emerged only in recent years, contained case studies and meta-reviews with primary (qualitative) data, and involved community members in various capacities. Overall, 13 articles were reviewed that contributed to understanding co-desig...
... Approximately half of the articles (n = 12 articles; 48.0%) considered climate change to a major extent, while ten articles (40.0%) considered climate change explicitly to a minor extent, and three articles (12.0%) made implicit references to climate change. For instance, some articles included climate change in the study goals, data collection, and analysis (explicitly considered to a major extent) [11,[13][14]19,37,41], while others discussed their results in the context of climate change (explicitly considered to a minor extent) [21][22][25][26]38,40,43,46,[48][49]. Other articles considered climate change implicitly. ...
... Many articles identified remote populations (n = 14 articles; 56%), Indigenous peoples (n = 13 articles; 52%), and age (n = 5 articles; 20%) as factors that contribute to climate change vulnerability. For example, articles described increased vulnerability to climate change due to the close relationships that many Indigenous peoples have with the environment [11,13]; water treatment infrastructure challenges in remote locations [38,40]; high gastrointestinal illness rates among infants, children and the elderly [19]; and concerns about water access and health impacts on children and Elders [41]. Fewer articles, however, identified public health service access (n = 3 articles; 12%), gender (n = 2 articles; 8%), and the economy (n = 2 articles; 8%) as factors that influence climate change vulnerability. ...
We reviewed the nature, range, and extent of literature on drinking water and human health outcomes in the context of climate change in the Circumpolar North. We used a systematic process to identify and synthesize articles. While the number of climate-water-health articles increased recently, this topic remains under-studied despite the transformational changes that the Circumpolar North has already experienced due to climate change. Of the climate-focused articles, most considered climate change to a major extent and discussed waterborne infections. Research examining and evaluating adaptation options and future impacts at the climate-water-health nexus is absent in the Circumpolar North. Responding to this research gap should become a top priority for research, given the urgent need for this evidence to inform climate change policies, actions, and interventions.
... The access measure guidelines of the World Health Organization (Bartram and Howard 2003) place the community at a "very high" level of health concern (Mercer and Hanrahan 2017). Black Tickle is an example of an ongoing failure of Canadian governments to adapt infrastructure to local environmental conditions and community preferences and contexts (Daley et al. 2015). In common with other Indigenous communities in Canada , Black Tickle suffers environmental injustice, environmental racism and, as we demonstrate, environmental sexism. ...
... They also face the reshaping of their emotional geographies as they navigate the familiar but increasingly challenging terrain of nature-societal relations. The experience of this community-which has much in common with other water insecure Indigenous communities in Canada in particular, and other such communities beyond (Mascarenhas 2007;Goldhar et al. 2013;Daley et al. 2015)-demonstrates that gender is a constitutive force in analyzing water insecurity. ...
en Indigenous communities in Canada suffer disproportionately from compromised water insecurity, with multiple negative implications. Some attention has been paid to gender and water insecurity in developing countries, especially in sub‐Saharan Africa, but the topic has been neglected for subarctic settings. We conducted long‐term research in Black Tickle, a remote Inuit community in Labrador, Canada, with no piped water and limited access to potable water. Our research was aimed at understanding the multiple dimensions of water security, identifying materialist responses, and conducting a pilot project in domestic rainwater harvesting. Water security emerged as a gendered phenomenon. We supplemented our reflective analysis on this research with two focus group discussions during which Inuit women described their experiences of water security. Participants reported that their physical and mental health are undermined by water insecurity and that water is a source of multiple stresses that demand resilience. Given a developing remittance economy, gender was identified as an increasingly significant determinant of water insecurity in this subarctic community. Having to retrieve water themselves, Inuit women experience altered gender norms and a persistent values conflict in addition to physical strain. Water acquisition is an added responsibility, impacting their labour load. Alternatively, in relying on available men to retrieve water, participants reported feeling guilty and anxious and they worried about men fetching water in dangerous weather conditions and in the vicinity of dangerous wildlife. Participants’ experiences make clear the urgency for a materialist response to water insecurity in the Indigenous subarctic.
Le genre et l'insécurité d'accès à l'eau dans une communauté autochtone subarctique
fr Les communautés autochtones au Canada souffrent de façon disproportionnée de l'insécurité d'accès à l'eau, ce qui entraîne des répercussions négatives multiples. Certaines recherches ont porté sur le genre et l'insécurité dans l'accès à l'eau au sein des pays en développement, surtout en Afrique subsaharienne, mais le sujet n'a pas été abordé dans le cadre subarctique. Nous avons effectué une recherche à long terme à Black Tickle, une communauté inuit éloignée au Labrador, Canada, qui n'a pas l'eau courante et qui a un accès limité à l'eau potable. Notre étude visait à comprendre les dimensions multiples de la sécurité d'accès à l'eau, à identifier les comportements sur le plan matériel et à effectuer un projet pilote sur la cueillette de l'eau de pluie. La sécurité d'accès à l'eau est ressortie comme étant un phénomène lié au genre. Nous avons ajouté à notre analyse approfondie, des discussions issues de deux groupes de réflexion pendant lesquelles des Inuit ont décrit leurs expériences liées à la sécurité d'accès à l'eau. Les participantes ont rapporté que leur santé physique et mentale est minée par l'insécurité d'accès à l'eau et que l'eau est source de nombreux stress qui exigent de faire preuve de résilience. Dans un contexte d”économie de subsistance, le genre a été identifié comme un déterminant des plus significatifs dans l'insécurité d'accès à l'eau à l'intérieur de cette communauté subarctique. Devant collecter l'eau elles‐mêmes, les femmes inuit éprouvent un malaise en ce qui concerne les normes et pratiques associées aux genres ainsi qu'un conflit persistant de valeurs, en plus des différentes contraintes physiques. La cueillette de l'eau est une responsabilité ajoutée qui affecte la charge de travail des femmes au quotidien. Occasionnellement, lorsqu'elles s'appuient sur des hommes pour recueillir l'eau, les participantes ont rapporté se sentir coupables et anxieuses et s'inquiéter des risques pour les hommes qui vont collecter de l'eau dans des conditions météorologiques dangereuses et à proximité d'animaux sauvages. Les expériences des participantes démontrent clairement l'urgence d'une intervention sur le plan physique afin de contrer l'insécurité d'accès à l'eau en milieu nordique autochtone.
... The conceptual model is informed by prior research of the authors (Daley et al. 2015) as well as more recent stakeholder meetings with municipal administrators, wastewater treatment employees, engineers, health professionals, environmental conservation officers, and hunter and trapper organizations in Iqaluit, Pangnirtung, and Pond Inlet, Nunavut, Canada, that took place in September 2014. ...
... However, in some instances, wastewater intermittently decants in an uncontrolled manner through a gravel berm into the wetland. Further sedimentation, filtration, and other natural processes may occur in the wetland continuing to treat the wastewater to some degree (Crites and Tchobanoglous 1998). The final receiving environments, after the effluent passes through the wetlands, are aquatic estuaries and ocean waters. ...
Wastewater management in Canadian Arctic communities is influenced by several geographical factors including climate, remoteness, population size, and local food-harvesting practices. Most communities use trucked collection services and basic treatment systems, which are capable of only low-level pathogen removal. These systems are typically reliant solely on natural environmental processes for treatment and make use of existing lagoons, wetlands, and bays. They are operated in a manner such that partially treated wastewater still containing potentially hazardous microorganisms is released into the terrestrial and aquatic environment at random times. Northern communities rely heavily on their local surroundings as a source of food, drinking water, and recreation, thus creating the possibility of human exposure to wastewater effluent. Human exposure to microbial hazards present in municipal wastewater can lead to acute gastrointestinal illness or more severe disease. Although estimating the actual disease burdens associated with wastewater exposures in Arctic communities is challenging, waterborne- and sanitation-related illness is believed to be comparatively higher than in other parts of Canada. This review offers a conceptual framework and evaluation of current knowledge to enable the first microbial risk assessment of exposure scenarios associated with food-harvesting and recreational activities in Arctic communities, where simplified wastewater systems are being operated.
... So far only one study has reported on the presence of tetracycline and sulfonamide resistance genes in the WSP-wetland WWTP and the immediate receiving waters of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut (NU) (Chaves- Barquero et al., 2016). The issue of antibiotic resistance is of particular importance in the Canadian Territory of Nunavut, which is primarily inhabited by Inuit who practice a number of food harvesting activities (hunting, fishing, shellfish harvesting, etc.) that may create exposure pathways with wastewater constituents including ARBs (Daley et al., 2015(Daley et al., , 2017. ...
... This may be due to differences in the infrastructure among the communities where Pond Inlet and Clyde River are serviced 100% by water and sewage trucks while in Iqaluit about 60% of costumer connections are on piped services. Previous research has shown that trucked services markedly reduce water consumption (Daley et al., 2015;Heinke et al., 1991), which in turn could increase the proportion of fecal matter including ARB and ARGs in the raw sewage. Future research involving antibiotic residue analysis of wastewater samples may help to provide insight into overall antibiotic pressure that is present in these wastewater systems, and elucidate mechanistic causes of the different ARG profiles observed in raw and treatment wastewater from the three communities. ...
Domestic wastewater discharges may adversely impact arctic ecosystems and local indigenous people, who rely on being able to hunt and harvest food from their local environment. Therefore, there is a need to develop efficient wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), which can be operated in remote communities under extreme climatic conditions. WWTPs have been identified as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). The objective of this work was to quantify the presence of nine different ARG markers (int1, sul1, sul2, tet(O), erm(B), mecA, blaCTX-M, blaTEM, and qnr(S)) in two passive systems (waste stabilization ponds [WSPs]) and one mechanical filtration plant operating in two smaller and one large community, respectively, in Nunavut, Canada. Measurement of water quality parameters (carbonaceous oxygen demand, ammonia, total suspended solids, Escherichia coli and total coliforms) showed that the WWTPs provided only primary treatment. Low levels of the ARGs (2 log copies/mL) were observed in the effluent, demonstrating that bacteria residing in three northern WWTPs harbour ARGs conferring resistance to multiple clinically-relevant classes of antibiotics. Our results indicate that long-term storage in WSPs benefitted removal of organic material and some ARGs. However, one WSP system showed evidence of the enrichment of sul1, sul2, mecA, tet(O) and qnr(S). Further research is needed to fully understand if these ARG releases pose a risk to human health, especially in the context of traditional hunting and fishing activities.
... Water quality concerns also change residents' perceptions of their environment and the way they use water resources in their daily lives. Residents of many Arctic communities commonly drink untreated water directly from a variety of natural sources, including lakes, streams, and rivers in summer, and from lake ice, icebergs, snow, and multi-year sea ice in winter (Nickels et al. 2006;Martin et al. 2007;Daley et al. 2015). Warming temperatures as well as both long-range and point-source contamination from development pressure may inherently increase the risk of relying on untreated water sources (Bring et al. 2016;Instanes et al. 2016). ...
... While Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet have above-and below-ground water pipe utilidor systems, and Resolute Bay still relies on a highly fragile utilidor system that was slated for decommissioning in 2011 (George 2009), a majority of Nunavut communities deliver drinking water by truck. Each household on trucked water delivery has its own potable water storage tank, which varies in capacity, the typical size being 1200 L (Daley et al. 2015). Small household tanks and inadequate flow from over-burdened pumping stations leaves many homes waiting for water each day (Rohner 2014). ...
Water is a fundamental component of the ecological integrity, economic development, and sustainability of northern regions, as well as the health and well-being of northerners. However, environmental change has altered fragile thermodynamic relationships of northern ecosystems by shifting seasonal transitions, altering precipitation regimes, reducing snow and ice cover, and increasing exposure to solar radiation. This has exacerbated existing pressures on freshwater supply that have arisen from increased resource development, inappropriate or inadequate infrastructure, population stress, erosion of Indigenous knowledge systems and culture, and inadequate policy and management. Since water governance systems in northern Canada are under rapid evolution, we examine key vulnerabilities to both the quantity of accessible freshwater and the quality of available freshwater resources for communities in Nunavut, Arctic Canada, within a water security framework. While the concept of water security is often approached from a human-centred perspective, we note the importance of integrating a biophysical perspective. We also compare information and experiences of the other northern regions to assess how water security is conceptualized and addressed across northern Canada, identifying biophysical and social vulnerabilities as well as implications for governance and adaptation.
... is a valuable commodity which should be utilized to reduce water usage. In-home greywater reuse is not widely practiced, and is illegal to reuse within homes throughout the majority of North America (NRC 2016); this is a particular limitation for many circumpolar communities still lacking sustainable water and sanitation (Daley et al. 2015, Thomas et al. 2016. ...
... Greywater, which can be defined as domestic household wastewater without input from the toilet (Ottosson 2003), is a valuable commodity which should be utilized to reduce water usage. In-home greywater reuse is not widely practiced, and is illegal to reuse within homes throughout the majority of North America (NRC 2016), where there are many circumpolar communities still lacking sustainable water and sanitation (Daley et al. 2015, Thomas et al. 2016. ...
The potential constraints and testing needs surrounding safe greywater reuse are poorly understood. Given the wide variety of contaminants present in different greywater from home to home and even between sources within the same home, there are unique treatment needs and considerations for each. The aim of the work performed in this thesis was to assess these needs and provide an improved way to test greywater treatment performance over current use of coliforms. A literature review was performed, indicating significant variances in faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) across sources, and even within the same sources. While FIB (e.g. faecal coliforms/E. coli & enterococci) are useful to verify municipal water treatment, the same cannot be said for greywater. Thus, an alternative target is needed to not only indicate the presence of non-enteric pathogenic organisms present in greywater, but also to be indigenous to greywater at a high enough level to assess at least a four-log10 bacterial treatment reduction. Given the high prevalence of total staphylococci on human skin, total staphylococci were selected as a potential surrogate to represent bacterial reduction when exposed to the most commonly used greywater disinfection process, ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Staphylococcus spp. and select FIB were subjected to UV irradiation; while the potentially pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus was found to be less resistant to UV than FIB, other Staphylococcus spp., such as S. haemolyticus and S. hominis were significantly more resistant than S. aureus and a range of FIB. UV was used to treat raw hand-rinse water from five participants to assess the efficacy of total staphylococci as an endogenous surrogate to assess bacterial reduction; total staphylococci made up the majority of the culturable bacteria before and after irradiation which suggests it would act as an adequate surrogate. While UV is an attractive and relatively low maintenance disinfection method, there are efficacy and safety considerations. Of particular concern, through cyclic growth and exposure, S. aureus can theoretically become enriched in a circulating greywater reuse system, with strains becoming more resistant to UV irradiation. Additionally, given the prevalence of personal care products (PCP) in wastewater, especially in greywater, the efficacy of UV towards S. aureus in the presence the sunscreen oxybenzone, was assessed. When present in water at a concentration of 10 mg.mL-1, oxybenzone was shown to decrease the efficacy of UV-C by nearly one order of magnitude.
... In Arctic regions, compromised access to safe quantities and quality of water has been associated with skin and soft tissue infections, pneumonia, and influenza in Alaska Natives (Hennessy et al. 2008). In the Territory of Nunavut (one of four Canadian Inuit-settled Land Claim areas), larger communities such as Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet have utilidor systems and are less susceptible to water shortages (Medeiros et al. 2016); however, some smaller communities rely on trucked water service, which can discourage water use due to potential limits in supply (Daley et al. 2014); indeed, per capita water usage in one Nunavut community was approximately three times lower than the Canadian national average (Daley et al. 2015), which could increase the risk of hygiene-related diseases (Hennessy and Bressler 2016). Other studies have shown that some Inuit populations experience the highest rates of self-reported acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) in the global peer-reviewed literature (Harper et al. 2011;Harper et al. 2015a;Harper et al. 2015b), with water identified as an important risk factor for enteric illness in Canada's North (Harper et al. 2011;Pardhan-Ali et al. 2012a;Pardhan-Ali et al. 2012b;Harper et al. 2015a;Harper et al. 2015b). ...
The present study aimed to survey the spatial and temporal trends of ambient concentration of PM2.5 and to estimate mortality attributed to short- and long-term exposure to PM2.5 in Isfahan from March 2014 to March 2019 using the AirQ⁺ software. The hourly concentrations of PM2.5 were obtained from the Isfahan Department of Environment and Isfahan Air Quality Monitoring Center. Then, the 24-h mean concentration of PM2.5 for each station was calculated using the Excel software. According to the results, the annual mean concentration of PM2.5 in 2014–2019 was 29.9–50.9 μg/m³, approximately 3–5 times higher than the WHO guideline (10 μg/m³). The data showed that people of Isfahan in almost 58% to 96% of the days of a year were exposed to PM2.5 higher than the WHO daily guideline. The concentrations of PM2.5 in cold months such as October, November, December and January were higher than those in the other months. The zoning of the annual concentrations of PM2.5 in urban areas showed that the highest PM2.5 concentrations were related to the northern, northwestern, southern and central areas of the city. On average, from 2014 to 2019, the number of deaths due to natural mortality, lung cancer (LC), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke associated with ambient PM2.5 were 948, 16, 18, 281 and 60, respectively. The present study estimated that on average, 14.29% of the total mortality, 17.2% of lung cancer (LC), 15.54% of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), 17.12% of ischemic heart disease (IHD) and 14.94% of stroke mortalities were related to long-term exposure to ambient PM2.5. So provincial managers and politicians must adopt appropriate strategies to control air pollution and reduce the attributable health effects and economic losses.
... Greywater (graywater), which can be defined as domestic household wastewater without input from the toilet (Ottosson 2003), is a valuable commodity which should be utilized to reduce water usage. In-home greywater reuse is not widely practiced, and is illegal to reuse within homes throughout the majority of North America (National Research Council of the National Academics 2016), where there are many circumpolar communities still lacking sustainable water and sanitation (Thomas et al. 2016;Daley et al. 2015). ...
Acetochlor is one of the most widely used pesticides worldwide and widely distributed in the water environment. However, studies on the reproductive influence of acetochlor are still limited. To investigate the impact and potential mechanism of acetochlor on fish ovarian development, zebrafish were utilized as experiment models. The ovarian histology, ovarian development-related genes, and plasma oxidative stress-related indexes were investigated following acetochlor (at nominal concentration 1, 10, and 100 μg/L) exposure for 7 and 21 days. Results showed that low-dose acetochlor had estrogen effect and induced zebrafish estradiol (E2) and ovarian vitellogenin (Vtg) synthesis and promoted ovarian development, while long-term exposure to higher doses of acetochlor reduced the ability of ovarian resistance to oxidative stress and destroyed the development of the ovary. Moreover, bone morphogenetic protein 15 (bmp15) and growth differentiation factor 9 (gdf9) were also involved in the influence of acetochlor on the ovarian development of zebrafish.
... 2 The important fact related to this point is that a growing body of the literature in epidemiology and bacteriology has found a significant association between meteorological conditions and the infection risk of waterborne infectious diseases 1 See also Jalan and Ravallion (2003), Gamper-Rabindran et al. (2010), and Devoto et al. (2012) for the cases of India, Brazil, and Morocco, respectively. Daley et al. (2015) provide an interesting evidence on the importance of residents' perceptions of the functionality of current water and water sanitation systems in a remote Arctic Aboriginal community. 2 For example, Jalan and Ravallion (2003) found a variation in the effects of piped water on the prevalence and duration of diarrhea across mothers' education levels. ...
Mortality from waterborne infectious diseases remains a serious issue globally. Investigating the efficient laying plan of waterworks to mitigate the risk factors for such diseases has been an important research avenue for industrializing countries. While a growing body of the literature has revealed the mitigating effects of water-purification facilities on diseases, the heterogeneous treatment effects of clean water have been understudied. The present study thus focuses on the treatment effect heterogeneity of piped water with respect to the external meteorological environment of cities in industrializing Japan. To estimate the varying effects, we implement fixed-effects semivarying coefficient models to deal with the unobservable confounding factors, using a nationwide city-level panel dataset between 1922 and 1940. We find evidence that the magnitude of safe water on the reduction in the typhoid death rate is larger in cities with a higher temperature, which is consistent with recent epidemiological evidence. These findings underscore the importance of the variations in the external meteorological conditions of the municipalities that install water-purification facilities in developing countries.
... Effects of climate change include socio-environmental impacts such as the increase of risks on food security due to uncertain changes in species distribution and availability; impacts on infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, various types of buildings and structures; and facilities, such as roads, railways, airports, pipelines, harbours, power stations, and power, water, and sewage lines (ACIA, 2005). Residents of many Arctic communities commonly drink untreated water directly from a variety of natural sources, including lakes, streams, and rivers in summer, and from lake ice, icebergs, snow, and multi-year sea ice in winter (Nickels et al., 2005;Martin et al., 2007;Daley et al., 2015). ...
Climate change impacts lead to alterations in migration patterns and the displacement of exposed native communities and peoples in the Arctic region, forcing them to leave their homes and traditional ways of life as a result of rapid local ecological changes. This paper illustrates climate-related displacements and subsequent relocation as extremely complex processes, and proposes traditional knowledge as a relevant source of knowledge both at local level and policy making spheres. The main conclusions are that the representation of indigenous peoples in international governance structures does not guarantee that traditional knowledge is entirely engaged in evidence-based policy making and that traditional knowledge is not always valued as an equal source of knowledge by some relevant scientific bodies. In this context, changing the approach towards a knowledge-systems-based framework would contribute to the development of more concrete policies and strategies for adaptation of Arctic native communities.
... 16 More recent stories of skin problems have been reported in other Canadian First Nations communities. 28,29 Our findings complement those previously reported and support the need for further investigations into health outcomes associated with drinking water and preventative measures in First Nations communities. ...
Water-related health challenges on First Nations reserves in Canada have been previously documented. Our objective was to describe factors associated with self-reported health effects from tap water in 8 First Nations reserve communities in Saskatchewan, Canada. Community-based participatory approaches were used in designing and implementing cross-sectional household surveys. Individual, household, community, and contextual effects were considered in multilevel analysis. Negative health effects from tap water were reported by 28% of households (n = 579). Concerns about environmental factors affecting water quality (odds ratio [OR] = 3.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.8-6.7), rarely or never drinking tap water (OR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.3-6.6), insufficient tap water (OR = 3.0, 95% CI = 1.4-6.3), paying for bottled water (OR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.2-8.7), and dissatisfaction with tap water were associated with self-reported health effects (n = 393); however, the effect of dissatisfaction was modified by respondent age (P = .03). Quality and availability were associated with perceptions of health effects from drinking water, providing additional information on how ongoing concerns about drinking water influence self-reported health in some First Nations.
... Although population sizes in the Canadian Arctic are relatively small-with few commercial agriculture and aquaculture industries-there is still cases of higher reported incidence of enteric infection in comparison to southern Canada (Harper et al., 2015) and AMR could be problematic (Gunnarsdóttir et al., 2013). Since WWTSs are located within or near many northern and remote communities, human-environment interactions could pose a risk of exposure to pathogens associated with wastewater via direct contact with the landscape or aquatic environment, or through contact with wildlife vectors (Daley et al., 2015;Pardhan-Ali et al., 2013;Founou et al., 2016;Harper et al., 2011). The possibility for wildlife to act as vectors for spreading of AMR from urban to rural areas in Arctic environments has been demonstrated in Alaskan seagulls carrying antibiotic resistant strains of E. coli (Atterby et al., 2016;Ramey et al., 2017). ...
In the Canadian Arctic, it is common practice to discharge municipal wastewater into tundra wetlands. Antibiotic resistant bacteria and the antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) they contain can be present in municipal wastewater and there is a scarcity of knowledge on ARGs in wastewater in Arctic environments. This study was initiated on the fate of ARGs in tundra wetland ecosystems impacted by anthropogenic wastewater sources in Arctic communities. In the summer season of 2016, two wetlands were studied in the Inuit communities of Sanikiluaq and Naujaat in Nunavut, Canada. Genomic DNA was extracted from both soil and water during the spring freshet and late summer in the wetlands, and a suite of nine clinically relevant ARGs (sul1, sul2, mecA, vanA, qnrS, ermB, tetO, blaTEM, blaCTX-M), and an integron gene (int1) were analyzed using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). Hydrological and water quality measurements were conducted in conjunction with the microbiological sampling. Gene targets were consistently present in the wastewater, and throughout both wetlands, except for vanA and mecA. Concentrations of ARGs were greater during the spring freshet, due to short hydraulic retention times (<2 days), which coincided with decreased treatment performance. The environmental resistome in un-impacted wetlands had above detection limit concentrations of int1, sul1, sul2, blaCTX-M in water in Naujaat, and sul1, qnrS and tetO in soil in Sanikiluaq. First-order rate constants were widely variable and specific to the gene target. ARGs were present in concentrations elevated above baseline reference sites in tundra wetlands influenced by municipal wastewater, and hydrological conditions had a large impact on their spatial distribution and levels.
... Similar situations are common to many First Nations communities that rely on insuffi cient or inadequate raw water sources to sustain their community drinking water supplies, and where costly advanced technological solutions are required (Patrick 2011 ;Plummer et al. 2013 ;White and Leblanc 2015 ). Researchers now emphasize the importance of learning the history and human/physical geographies of a community prior to engaging in research to inform decision making with Indigenous communities (Castleden et al. 2012 ;Leeuw et al. 2012 ), particularly when it comes to water management (Woodward and Marrfurra McTaggart 2015 ;Daley et al. 2015 ). ...
Water-related governance challenges confronting Indigenous people are well documented and have significant implications for water governance in Canada. Indigenous people have traditionally had a lack of voice, and little participation or significant representation at higher political points of authority to influence or sanction laws of water protection, regulation and enforcement on traditional territories. Canadian water policy and management decision processes are dominated by Western scientific viewpoints and exclude Indigenous values, norms and conceptions of water governance. Indigenous people’s relationship to water is often strongly connected to the spiritual world. Water is thought of as sacred, a sentient being, a gift from, and the life breath of the Creator, and, is fundamental for the wellbeing of the earth and all people. This worldview defines unique socio-cultural relationships with water and informs Indigenous water management and governance processes which are divergent from, and unrepresented within current Canadian water governance frameworks. Indigenous people are responding to water-related governance challenges by voicing their concerns, reclaiming their roles in water governance and calling for adaptation and realignment of current Canadian water policy regimes to include Indigenous water governance processes. This chapter will give historical, social and political context to the water-related governance challenges facing Indigenous peoples of Canada. Water governance challenges will be explored through discussions on Treaty Rights and jurisdictional fragmentation which at times, impedes those rights. We explore how community engagement, participation and empowerment and the duty to consult are challenging for issues of water governance. We find insight in the reclamation of sense of place through water in Indigenous communities. Indigenous socio-cultural relations to water, and traditional strategies of water resource use, monitoring, management and protection will be highlighted drawing on examples across Canada and globally. It will provide a review of literature on some principles of, and models for Indigenous governance of water. A critical discussion of the commonalities and diversities between Indigenous and Western Scientific approaches to water governance will be woven through the text and include debate on the creation of new governance and decision making frameworks that are truly inclusive, respect ancestral knowledge, and introduce culture and governance mechanisms so that Indigenous people can fully participate in the political, organizational, administrative and decision making processes and approaches to water governance in Canada.
... First Nations (FN) reserves across Canada are frequently under a drinking water advisory, often due to unacceptable levels of coliform bacteria (Bradford et al., 2018). Previous publications have discussed a range of factors that hinder safe drinking water supplies in homes of FN reserves in Canada (Daley et al., 2015;Patrick, 2011). Contributing factors might include the lack of financial and human support for small-scale water distribution systems, the absence of a regulatory framework, the lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities of governments, and other factors. ...
About one-half of the homes on First Nations (FN) reserves in Manitoba, Canada, receive piped water from a water treatment plant (WTP). Many other homes (31%) are equipped with cisterns that are filled by a water truck, and our objective was to determine how the use of cisterns affects drinking water safety relative to drinking water piped directly to homes from the WTP. The study included belowground concrete cisterns, belowground fiberglass cisterns, and aboveground polyethylene cisterns stored in insulated shelters, and all the data collection methods showed that the tap water in homes with cisterns were relatively more contaminated with coliform bacteria than the tap water in piped homes. The frequency and severity of Escherichia coli and total coliform contamination were numerically greater in drinking water samples from belowground concrete and fiberglass cisterns than in piped water samples in each community, and the contamination of belowground cisterns by coliform bacteria was greatest in late spring. As well, data obtained under the Access to Information Act showed no statistical differences in the percent of satisfactory samples (no detects) between 2014 and 2018, suggesting no clear indication of improved water quality in any of the Tribal Councils in which these three and other communities are a member off. Our results point to the need for additional treatment of drinking water in homes supplied by belowground concrete or fiberglass cisterns and replacement of belowground cisterns with aboveground cisterns or piped water to reduce the risk of water-borne illnesses.
... Studies of pathogens present in fecal samples collected from cases of AGI have yet to be linked with wastewater exposure (Goldfarb et al., 2013;Iqbal et al., 2015). However, enteric pathogens (Hastings et al., 2014;Thivierge et al., 2016) and potential risk of environmental contamination from wastewater treatment sites (Daley et al., 2015) remain as ongoing public health concerns among communities and officials in the region (Pardhan-Ali et al., 2013). ...
Most arctic communities use primary wastewater treatment systems that are capable of only low levels of pathogen removal. Effluent potentially containing fecally derived microorganisms is released into wetlands and marine waters that may simultaneously serve as recreation or food harvesting locations for local populations. The purpose of this study is to provide the first estimates of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) attributable to wastewater treatment systems in Arctic Canada. A screening-level, point estimate quantitative microbial risk assessment model was developed to evaluate worst-case scenarios across an array of exposure pathways in five case study locations. A high annual AGI incidence rate of 5.0 cases per person is estimated in Pangnirtung, where a mechanical treatment plant discharges directly to marine waters, with all cases occurring during low tide conditions. The probability of AGI per person per single exposure during this period ranges between 1.0 × 10⁻¹ (shore recreation) and 6.0 × 10⁻¹ (shellfish consumption). A moderate incidence rate of 1.2 episodes of AGI per person is estimated in Naujaat, where a treatment system consisting of a pond and tundra wetland is used, with the majority of cases occurring during spring. The pathway with the highest individual probability of AGI per single exposure event is wetland travel at 6.0 × 10⁻¹. All other risk probabilities per single exposure are <1.0 × 10⁻¹. The AGI incidence rates estimated for the other three case study locations are <0.1. These findings suggest that wastewater treatment sites may be contributing to elevated rates of AGI in some arctic Canadian communities. Absolute risk values, however, should be weighed with caution based on the exploratory nature of this study design. These results can be used to inform future risk assessment and epidemiological research as well as support public health and sanitation decisions in the region.
... Civic refers to membership organizations and cooperatives. The community-based and participatory approach for cross-level collaboration conducted by (Daley et al. 2015b) suggests that a comprehensive assessment of community values and behaviors should be considered. Community-based planning focuses on eliminating resource pollution boosts the recovery of the aquatic habitats. ...
The water management in various countries of the world provides a comprehensive understanding of the international movement on healthy watershed management. Watershed characteristics including River basin management in the UK, eco-health watershed management in Canada, sustainable water management in Korea, integrated watershed management in Japan, and healthy watershed management in the US. have been examined in this review. Pioneering countries utilize green infrastructural applications to improve their resilience against climate change by adopting adaptive solutions and mitigating pollution sources. This paper includes an overview of the implementation of green infrastructure exemplified by bioretention in urban development and ecosystem maintenance. The good engineering practice for bioretention was established by applying data collected from other research. Biomantle and semi-direct injection of storm water are the two methods for sustaining bioretention functionalities for peak flow reduction and soil stability enhancement. Maximum pollutants reduction efficiencies by bioretention were reported in the past research, including 99% of phosphorus, 82% of nitrate, 92% of heavy metals, and 96% of suspended solid. Lastly, a conclusive benefit analysis of green infrastructure from environmental, economic, and social perspectives was conducted.
... Several studies have determined the cause of OD, but this study will focus on rural areas; however, studies on urban areas are scarce. [18][19][20][21] There has been a scant study to explore OD at municipal levels. 22 The findings of the present study can be used to design or conduct follow up intervention of access sanitation and reduce OD in urban areas. ...
At the present time, an estimated of 673 million people defecate in the open space, not in private. Indonesia is a densely populated country with a lot of open defecation (OD) both in urban (37%) and rural areas (43%). Tanjung Karang Pusat Subdistrict is an area in Bandar Lampung City with the highest percentage of OD practice (45%). This study aimed to explore and explain the patterns and determinants of OD among urban people in the Tanjung Karang Pusat Subdistrict in- volving 377 respondents for quantitative analysis. Quantitative data were analyzed using the chi square and regression analysis. After controlling the economic status and education level variables, the data revealed that urban communities were still practicing OD (23.3%) with land ownership, latrine ownership, conative attitude, and occupation as influential factors. Statistical test results showed that the most influential factor in the behavior of OD in the community was latrine ownership (p-value <0.001, OR adj = 58.2). These findings suggested that stakeholders must take action on landowners who do not allow sanitation facilities to be built on their land.
... In keeping with other research findings, greater effort was needed to ensure Indigenous populations are fully informed and consulted with. In discussions they requested information on the impact of PFAS on traditional practices such as hunting, eating bush foods and fishing [44][45][46][47]. ...
Background
Exposure to per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is a public health issue globally. In Australia high concentrations of PFAS have been found in environments close to sites where Aqueous Film Forming Foams (AFFF) were historically used for firefighting activities. This has resulted in significant community concern about the potential long-term health effects of these chemicals.
Objective
We describe residents’ perceptions and experiences of PFAS in three regional Australian towns where exposure has occurred.
Methods
We conducted focus groups to generate free-flowing open discussion on PFAS in three affected communities, including some with significant numbers of First Nations Peoples. We recruited participants using a range of media outlets and postal services. Focus group transcripts were analysed thematically to identify major shared concerns using Atlas Ti.
Results
One hundred and eighty residents attended fifteen focus groups that were conducted in the three communities. They included 69 First Nations People living in three communities near the town of Katherine in the Northern Territory. Study participants were concerned about potential physical health effects of exposure to PFAS, such as cancer clusters, unexplained deaths, potential exacerbation of existing health conditions, and the future health of their children. They expressed feelings of stress and anxiety about living with uncertainty related to the possible health and the socio-economic impacts of PFAS contamination in their communities.
Conclusion
While research has concentrated on the physical health effects of PFAS, more attention needs to be given to the immediate psychosocial impacts of living in an affected community.
... Drinking water is a basic need crucial for human life in a sustainable manner to improve public health (Daley et al., 2015). A National Policy and Strategy for the Development of Drinking Water Supply Systems is stipulated by a Minister of Public Works Regulation. ...
This study aims to predict the current and future demand for clean water, and efforts to develop clean water supply from a social aspect in Sentul City (SC). To estimate the need for clean water, it is predicted from the total population from year to year. Forecasting population in this study uses arithmetic and geometric methods, while Stella software is used to facilitate the analysis. Starting in 2030, it is estimated that SC will experience water shortages. The Community Based Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation or PAMSIMAS program and installation of smart tanks are proposed to overcome the problem water shortage of rural residents in SC. Meanwhile, for urban residents, they can collect rainwater that falls on the roofs of houses and collect it in smart tanks. The implementation of PAMSIMAS program and the installation of smart tanks in SC has an important function as a supplier of backup raw water sources to overcome current and future shortages of clean water.
... Even where IPs have access to treated or piped water, this water is often of poorer quality than in other areas. For example, 20% of all drinking water advisories in Canada are in indigenous communities, who only make up 5% of the country's population (Daley et al. 2015). Overall, water contamination has resulted in greater exposure to mine wastes among Native Americans than other populations (Brugge and Gobble 2002;Harper et al. 2012). ...
... However, these technologies are either not affordable by impoverished communities or impractical to the communities in the landlocked regions with very limited access to water resource [10,11]. For the latter, reliance on long distance pipe transportation for fresh water becomes essential but expensive expenditure of the local economy, which is widely deemed non-sustainable [12][13][14]. It has been reported that more than 783 million people has no direct access to safe drinking water due to the impoverished conditions [15]. ...
Clean water shortage has long been a challenge in remote and landlocked communities especially for the impoverished. Atmospheric water is now considered as an unconventional but accessible fresh water source and sorption-based atmospheric water generator (AWG) has been successfully demonstrated a reliable way of harvesting atmospheric water. The water vapor sorbents with high water uptake capacity and especially fast vapor sorption/desorption kinetics have become the bottleneck to a desirable clean water productivity in AWG. In this work, we developed a new nano vapor sorbent composed of a nano carbon hollow capsule with LiCl inside the void core. The sorbent can capture water vapor from ambient air as much as 100% of its own weight under RH 60% within 3 h and quickly release the sorbed water within just half hour under 1 kW/m² sunlight irradiation. A batch-mode AWG device was able to conduct 3 sorption/desorption cycles within 10 h during one day test in the outdoor condition and produced 1.6 kgwater/kgsorbent. A prototype of continuous AWG device was designed, fabricated, and successfully demonstrated, hinting a possible way of large-scale deployment of AWG for practical purposes.
... Hydroclimatic changes in the high-latitude region, including both surface air temperature (T) and the water variables of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and runoff (R), can lead to ecosystem regime shifts (Karlsson et al., 2011;Wrona et al., 2016); infrastructure damages (Instanes et al., 2016); and critical changes to water resources , water security (Bring, Jarsjö, & Destouni, 2015), and health (Daley et al., 2015;Evengard et al., 2011;Martin et al., 2009). Furthermore, local changes propagate with R and ET to affect the ocean (Carmack et al., 2016), atmosphere (Vihma et al., 2016), vegetation (Pearson et al., 2013), sedimentation rates and fish migration (Chalov et al., 2018), carbon releases from thawed permafrost (Schuur et al., 2015), and ocean-biomass production by waterborne nutrient loading from land to sea (Prowse et al., 2015). ...
Abstract Rapid changes in high‐latitude hydroclimate have important implications for human societies and environment. Previous studies of different regions have indicated better agreement between climate model results and observation data for the thermodynamic variable of surface air temperature (T) than for the water variables of precipitation (P), evapotranspiration (ET), and runoff (R). Here we compare climate model output with observations for 64 Nordic and Arctic hydrological basins of different sizes, and for the whole region combined. We find an unexpectedly high agreement between models and observations for R, about as high as the model‐observation agreement for T and distinctly higher than that for P or ET. Model‐observation agreement for R and T is also consistently higher on the whole‐region scale than individual basin scales. In contrast, model‐observation agreement for P and ET is overall lower, and for some error measures also lower for the whole region than for individual basins of various scales. Region‐specific soil freeze–thaw bias of climate models can at least partly explain the low model‐observation agreement for P and ET, while leaving modeled R relatively unaffected. Thereby, model projections for this region may be similarly reliable and directly useful for large‐scale average conditions of R as of T.
... Even where IPs have access to treated or piped water, this water is often of poorer quality than in other areas. For example, 20% of all drinking water advisories in Canada are in indigenous communities, who only make up 5% of the country's population (Daley et al. 2015). Overall, water contamination has resulted in greater exposure to mine wastes among Native Americans than other populations (Brugge and Gobble 2002;Harper et al. 2012). ...
Indigenous Peoples worldwide are confronted by the increasing threat of pollution. Based on a comprehensive review of the literature (N = 686 studies), we present the current state of knowledge on i) the exposure and vulnerability of Indigenous Peoples to pollution; ii) the environmental, health and cultural impacts of pollution upon Indigenous Peoples; and iii) Indigenous Peoples’ contributions to prevent, control, limit, and abate pollution from local to global scales. Indigenous Peoples experience large burdens of environmental pollution linked to the expansion of commodity frontiers and industrial development, including agricultural, mining and extractive industries, as well as urban growth, waste dumping, and infrastructure and energy development. Nevertheless, Indigenous Peoples are contributing to limit pollution in different ways, including through environmental monitoring and global policy advocacy, as well as through local resistance towards polluting activities. This work adds to growing evidence of the breadth and depth of environmental injustices faced by Indigenous Peoples worldwide, and we conclude by highlighting the need to increase Indigenous Peoples’ engagement in environmental decision‐making regarding pollution control. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Effects of climate change include socio-environmental impacts such as the increase of risks on food security due to uncertain changes in species distribution and availability; impacts on infrastructure, including schools, hospitals, various types of buildings and structures; and facilities, such as roads, railways, airports, pipelines, harbours, power stations, and power, water, and sewage lines (ACIA, 2005). Residents of many Arctic communities commonly drink untreated water directly from a variety of natural sources, including lakes, streams, and rivers in summer, and from lake ice, icebergs, snow, and multi-year sea ice in winter (Nickels et al., 2005;Martin et al., 2007;Daley et al., 2015). ...
Human knowledge is not a static entity, but is a dynamic and cumulative learning process, which transforms and evolves through experience and communication. Human beings, and therefore human societies, are guided and governed based on the acquired and inherited knowledge. When we face complex environmental problems, the available knowledge is our best tool to overcome them and find solutions, and each individual, community or society applies the knowledge at hand, or at least, considered as useful.
This PhD research discusses that under complex environmental issues -in which there are varying degrees of uncertainty and urgency, such as the impacts of climate change, invasive agricultural species, or overfishing- techno-scientific data is not providing all the answers that humans and environment require. Therefore, an urgent need to mobilise other kinds of knowing in order to co-create knowledge and elaborate more efficient policies is proposed.
It is explored how relevant sources of situated environmental knowledge exist within communities that have subsisted and evolved under conditions of insularity and relative isolation, that is, in islands and remote territories. These types of spaces share a series of characteristics that allow their study under a unique perspective: insularity; in addition, they are suggested as “environmental-knowledge hot spots”.
Under a Post-Normal Science paradigm, and in order to validate the value and usefulness of the knowledge these types of communities hold, this thesis applies an integrated approach consisting on institutional analysis and participatory processes to three different case studies. The studied cases range from the invasion of an agricultural pest that severely affects the cultivation of potatoes on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands); the artisanal fishing as a response to overfishing in Tenerife; and finally, the impacts of climate change on small Arctic communities.
This research tries to illustrate the need to overcome scientific, social, cultural and institutional barriers in current environmental policy making processes. These processes must be based on trans-disciplinary and trans-epistemological approaches, allowing the inclusion and enhancement of other types of knowing into the cycles.
As households move up the sanitation ladder, health risks presumably decline but the corresponding technologies may require increasing operation and maintenance costs. One critique of the ladder is that it prioritizes technology and could be improved if it included a functional approach to monitoring, such as including aspects of environmental sustainability that consider resource recovery. Using analyses of data obtained from semi-structured interviews, surveys, and field observations, this study examines the functional transition toward improved sanitation technology as a household moves up the sanitation ladder with the added function of resource recovery (from pit latrines to composting latrines). The study took place in six indigenous Ngäbe communities in Panama. The results reveal that of 103 pit latrines studied, 88% were completed and in use, but only 35% were operated appropriately. Approximately 60% of pit latrine owners reported that they would use composting latrines, with compost as the primary perceived benefit. Barriers to adoption include lack of prior experience, user disgust of working with excrement, and the perceived amount of work required for operation. Overall, these findings indicate the importance of establishing demonstration projects and culturally aligned training for more complex sanitation technologies that enable resource recovery. The results have broad implications for understanding sanitation technology transitions in rural and indigenous settlements in other world regions.
Household water insecurity is a complex socioecological challenge with a range of consequences for health and wellbeing. Understanding individual and household‐level coping strategies, i.e., responses or adaptations to manage water insecurity, can shape future research and development practice. We therefore (a) systematically describe the characteristics and contexts of 173 studies documenting coping strategies and (b) classify the types of strategies within four domains of water insecurity: access, use, quality, and reliability. Most studies were from Sub‐Saharan Africa or South Asia. In the domain of access, the most common coping strategies were building infrastructure, and storing, purchasing, and sharing water. For use, changing food consumption, agricultural practices, and hygiene were most frequently mentioned. For quality, water treatment was the most common strategy. To ensure water reliability, people most frequently reported changing routines or relocating their homes altogether. Our review provides a useful framework to understand coping strategies, but more research is needed to address three gaps in particular. First, we recommend more representative exploration of the range of coping strategies, particularly in middle‐ and high‐income countries. Second, the links between coping with water insecurity and a range of other nutritional, social, financial, and health outcomes need to be better understood to address overall household wellbeing. Third, we recommend the development of a metric to quantify individual and household‐level water insecurity‐related coping strategies. This line of inquiry can enable practitioners to design and implement context‐specific interventions that leverage preexisting strategies to improve experiences of water insecurity.
This article is categorized under:
• Human Water > Water Governance
• Engineering Water > Planning Water
The relationship between human health and water quantity is less understood than that of water quality. Based on earlier studies, the WHO has established a threshold of 13.2 gallons per person per day (gal/c/d) (50 L per person per day or l/c/d) of water as sufficient for health [26]. In remote and low income communities where piped water and sanitation systems do not exist, residents may seek water from multiple sources and use water for different purposes at multiple locations. In this paper, we aim to assess the quantity of water needed for different hygiene and physiologic needs and whether that water is required in the home and could be provided through a decentralized water and sanitation system or if it could be used at an alternate location. Using known appliance water flow rates and established or reasonable duration and frequency of use, we determine that the overall water need for a household of 5.5 persons assuming low-frequency use across categories (e.g. cooking, handwashing, laundry etc.) is 79.0 gallons/household (299 L/household), which equates to a total use of 14.4 gal/c/d (54.5 l/c/d). Assuming a functional centralized shower and laundry facility, 20.2 gallons (76.5 L) are needed in the home per day, equivalent to 3.7 gal/c/d (14 l/c/d). We conclude that, when combined with access to centralized laundry and shower facilities, decentralized in-home water and sanitation systems can facilitate sufficient water use to protect health.
Access to clean and safe drinking water is a perpetual concern in Arctic communities due to challenging climatic conditions, limited options for the transportation of equipment and process chemicals, and the ongoing effects of colonialism. Water samples were gathered from multiple locations in a decentralized trucked drinking water system in Nunavut, Canada, over the course of one year. The results indicate that point of use drinking water quality was impacted by conditions in the source water and in individual buildings and strongly suggest that lead and copper measured at the tap were related to corrosion of onsite premises plumbing components. Humic-like substances were the dominant organic fraction in all samples, as determined by regional integration of fluorescence data. Iron and manganese levels in the source water and throughout the water system were higher in the winter and lower in the summer months. Elevated concentrations of copper (>2000 µg L-1) and lead (>5 µg L-1) were detected in tap water from some buildings. Field flow fractionation coupled with an ICP-MS and a UV-Vis spectrometer was used to demonstrate the link between source water characteristics (high organics, iron, manganese) and lead and copper in point of use drinking water.
This paper is now open access and can be accessed at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b04691
National and international policies have called for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples and the uptake of Indigenous knowledge alongside Western knowledge in natural resource management. Such policy decisions have led to a recent proliferation of research projects seeking to apply both Indigenous and Western knowledge in water research and management. While these policies require people with knowledge from both Western and Indigenous perspectives to collaborate and share knowledge, how best to create and foster these partnerships is less understood. To elicit this understanding, 17 semi-structured interviews were completed with academic researchers from Canada and Australia who conduct integrative water research. Participants, most of whom were non-Indigenous, were asked to expand on their experiences in conducting integrative water research projects, and findings were thematically analyzed. Our findings suggest that Indigenous and Western knowledge systems influence how one relates to water, and that partnerships require a recognition and acceptance of these differences. We learned that community-based participatory research approaches, and the associated tenets of fostering mutual trust and community ownership for such an approach, are integral to the meaningful engagement that is essential for developing collaborative partnerships to implement both Indigenous and Western knowledge systems and better care for water.
Indigenous communities in Canada are over-represented with respect to poor water quality and water advisories. To date, approaches to solve this water crisis have been founded in the Western Science (WS) context with little to no consultation or dialogue with those communities most impacted, and without regard for culture. A literature review was undertaken to: (i) document Indigenous Knowledge (IK), and perspectives regarding water and (ii) to identify current local water security tools utilized by Indigenous communities. The aim is to provide sound evidence regarding the value of ownership and leadership by Indigenous communities in the context of current and appropriate resources available to (re)claim these roles. Solutions must remain consistent with, and founded upon, traditional Indigenous worldviews and cultural values to ensure sustainable water security. Literature reviewed from the past ten years revealed one overarching creation theme with three water-specific themes in Indigenous communities; namely, water from natural sources, water as a life-giving entity, and water and gender. Ultimately, there needs to be a new framing of local water security with the development of tools which engage IK and WS in order to assess local water security and appropriately inform interventions, policies, regulations and legislation.
This article explores the difficulties of governing solid waste management practices in Nunavut, Canada’s Arctic territory. The governing framework of solid waste management practices is compared with the actual state of landfills in Nunavut, by analyzing inspection reports of three communities in Nunavut (Baker Lake, Gjoa Haven, and Iqaluit) for ten years. This analysis confirms that communities consistently fail to meet waste management standards set by Nunavut’s legal framework. These waste management issues are reflective of larger systemic issues of governance in Nunavut, relating to infrastructure and funding. With the settlement of a recent litigation over treaty implementation problems, and a renewed commitment to the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, it is hoped that these challenges will be overcome. Various measures are suggested, including strengthening the legal framework, providing adequate personnel and training, and including the participation of the public. It is time to shift our conceptualization of the Arctic and its residents from merely viewing them as passive victims of
environmental harm, to recognizing that northerners can also be actors with the agency to cause environmental harm. This conceptual shift is necessary in order to better prioritize the governance of solid waste management in the North.
https://www.arcticyearbook.com/images/Articles_2016/scholarly-articles/9-AY2016-Song.pdf
Background. The generation and management of solid waste pose potential adverse impacts on human health and the environment.
Objective. The present study examines the operational performance of municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal in the Wa Municipality, Ghana.
Methods. The study applied both qualitative and quantitative research methods and modelled the Wa Municipality's MSW disposal system using the municipal solid waste decision support tool (MSW DST). Acid gases (sulphur oxides and nitrogen oxides) and total particulate matter that have a direct impact on human health were set as the objective functions for modelling five MSW disposal scenarios. The modelled scenarios were: 1) landfill disposal only; 2) composting and landfill disposal; 3) composting, incineration, refuse derived fuels (RDF) and landfill disposal; 4) separation, composting, incineration, RDF and landfill disposal; and 5) separation, transfer, material recovery, composting, incineration, RDF and landfill disposal. The pollutants chosen as indicators for substance flow analysis included lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury, copper, chromium, and zinc.
Results. Scenarios 4 and 5 produced the least engineering cost of 1 150 000 US $/year for the entire MSW disposal system, whereas scenario 2 produced the highest cost of 1 340 000 US $/year. Scenario 5 produced the least average health impacts of −5.812E-04 lbs/year, while scenario 2 generated the highest engineering cost and produced the highest average health impact of 9.358E-05 lbs/year. Scenarios 5 and 4, which included waste-to-energy conversion in the systems, produced the lowest average health impacts (−5.812E-04 lbs/year and −5.611E-04 lbs/year, respectively).
Conclusions. The adoption of an integrated solid waste management concept, including waste-to-energy technologies, will not only help to lessen MSW disposal hazards, but also to produce alternative sources of energy for Ghana and other developing countries.
Competing Interests. The authors declare no competing financial interests
Drinking water challenges often exist in the Circumpolar North; therefore, this research examined northern drinking water quality using three studies. First, a scoping review summarized circumpolar drinking water quality and human health literature, identifying few studies examining waterborne parasites. Second, Giardia and Cryptosporidium were examined in surface water from Iqaluit, Nunavut. Using EcoHealth approaches, water samples (n=55) were collected and tested for these parasites. 20.0% and 1.8% of samples tested positive for Giardia and Cryptosporidium, respectively. The odds of detecting parasites were greater with lower air and water temperatures compared to higher temperatures. Third, we explored waterborne Giardia and Cryptosporidium in Rigolet, Labrador. Of the drinking water sources tested (n=4), Giardia and Cryptosporidium were detected in tap water and the municipal water reservoir. This community-based research contributes to the growing literature on northern drinking water quality, and was intended to inform locally-specific and relevant water quality management in northern communities.
Indigenous communities in the Arctic often face unique drinking water quality challenges related to inadequate infrastructure and environmental contamination; however, limited research exists on waterborne parasites in these communities. This study examined Giardia and Cryptosporidium in untreated surface water used for drinking in Iqaluit, Canada. Water samples (n = 55) were collected weekly from June to September 2016 and tested for the presence of Giardia and Cryptosporidium using microscopy and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Exact logistic regressions were used to examine associations between parasite presence and environmental exposure variables. Using microscopy, 20.0% of samples tested positive for Giardia (n = 11) and 1.8% of samples tested positive
for Cryptosporidium (n = 1). Low water temperatures (1.1 to 6.7 C) and low air temperatures (-0.1 to 4.5 C) were significantly associated with an increased odds of parasite presence (p = 0.047, p = 0.041, respectively). These results suggest that surface water contamination with Giardia and Cryptosporidium may be lower in Iqaluit than in other Canadian regions; however, further research should examine the molecular characterization of waterborne parasites to evaluate the potential human health implications in Northern Canada.
In this paper I estimate the magnitude of association between water/sanitation infrastructure and health/well-being for First Nations individuals living on reserve in Canada in 2002/3, 2008/10 and 2015/6. I find that access to an indoor water supply is associated with an 80% reduction in the odds of reporting depression. In-home sanitation is associated with a reduction in depression, gastrointestinal illness and kidney problems. These results suggest that large health benefits can be achieved through increased infrastructure investment in First Nations across Canada. Existing houses should also be retrofitted to ensure all homes have access to running water/sanitation.
This report is organized around a set of topics that have dominated much of the recent literature in health geography: the importance of neighbourhoods, green spaces/blue spaces, density, walkability, and vulnerable populations. These topics are discussed in terms of the need to shift to new ideas and to avoid creating new determinisms in health geography. A second critical argument to the report is that health geographers also need to focus more of their efforts on those who are truly in need and have the fewest resources to effect change to their health and their lives.
Access to adequate quantities of water has a protective effect on human health and well-being. Despite this, public health research and interventions are frequently focused solely on water quality, and international standards for domestic water supply minimums are often overlooked or unspecified. This trend is evident in Inuit and other Arctic communities even though numerous transmissible diseases and bacterium infections associated with inadequate domestic water quantities are prevalent.
Our objective was to explore the pathways by which the trucked water distribution systems being used in remote northern communities are impacting health at the household level, with consideration given to the underlying social and environmental determinants shaping health in the region.
Using a qualitative case study design, we conducted 37 interviews (28 residents, 9 key informants) and a review of government water documents to investigate water usage practices and perspectives. These data were thematically analysed to understand potential health risks in Arctic communities and households.
Each resident receives an average of 110 litres of municipal water per day. Fifteen of 28 households reported experiencing water shortages at least once per month. Of those 15, most were larger households (5 people or more) with standard sized water storage tanks. Water shortages and service interruptions limit the ability of some households to adhere to public health advice. The households most resilient, or able to cope with domestic water supply shortages, were those capable of retrieving their own drinking water directly from lake and river sources. Residents with extended family and neighbours, whom they can rely on during shortages, were also less vulnerable to municipal water delays.
The relatively low in-home water quantities observed in Coral Harbour, Nunavut, appear adequate for some families. Those living in overcrowded households, however, are accessing water in quantities more typically seen in water insecure developing countries. We recommend several practical interventions and revisions to municipal water supply systems.
The treatment of municipal wastewater can be problematic in the remote cold climate environment of the Canadian Arctic, because of a variety of operational, financial, and technical and bureaucratic reasons. As a result, treatment facilities for many communities are thought to only achieve preliminary to primary treatment of municipal wastewater; wastewater often being discharged directly onto the tundra. In this study we provide the first season long study of tundra wetland systems in the Canadian Arctic. In 2008, we studied the performance of six wetland systems used for wastewater treatment in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut, Canada. The wetland systems studied services communities of approximately 320–2300 residents, including commercial and government buildings, but generally minimal industry. In total, the systems receive a flow rate of approximately 28–163 m3/day of wastewater. We observed average weekly percent reduction in all parameters, with deviations immediately after snow-melt and at the beginning of freeze-up. For the six parameters monitored we observed reductions of 47–94% cBOD5, 57–96% COD, 39–98% TSS, >99% TC, >99% E. coli, 84–99% NH3-N and 80–99% TP. In three of the systems, the water discharged from the wetlands and into the receiving environment maintained similar concentrations, and significant similarities in NH3-N and TP as observed in the natural background concentrations of nearby wetlands. The performance of tundra wetlands to treat the wastewater demonstrates that they are an appropriate technology for remote Canadian Arctic communities. This study also exemplifies the ability of natural systems to act as sinks and transformers, acknowledging that mechanistic assessments will be required to identify primary processes involved in the treatment of Arctic wastewater.
In this article, the authors describe how they used a hybrid process of inductive and deductive thematic analysis to interpret raw data in a doctoral study on the role of performance feedback in the self-assessment of nursing practice. The methodological approach integrated data-driven codes with theory-driven ones based on the tenets of social phenomenology. The authors present a detailed exemplar of the staged process of data coding and identification of themes. This process demonstrates how analysis of the raw data from interview transcripts and organizational documents progressed toward the identification of overarching themes that captured the phenomenon of performance feedback as described by participants in the study.
In Nunavik, chlorine-treated water is delivered daily, by tank truck, to the houses, where it is stored in tanks. A large part of the Inuit population continues to depend on an untreated water supply, however. This traditional activity poses certain risks in a region with an abundant presence of migratory animals. Nunavik has also experienced significant climate warming since the beginning of the last decade. The main goal of this study, which took place in 2003 and 2004, was to evaluate drinking habits that may place Nunavik residents at an increased risk of gastroenteric diseases in the context of climate change. During the Amundsen cruise in fall 2004, we observed that raw water from the collection sites most frequently visited (brooks, lakes, rivers) was of good quality in most of the villages. Regular monitoring of these sites is necessary, however, and the public should be warned when the sites become contaminated. Of particular concern was the water from the individual storage containers, which was much more contaminated than the water at the collection sites. To develop or improve the climate change adaptation strategies in this area, we propose 1) establishing an appropriate environmental monitoring system, 2) improving wastewater disposal and municipal water systems, 3) involving nursing staff in microbiological testing of the water at community sites, 4) raising public awareness of the risks related to raw water consumption, and 5) gathering strategic health information during the periods of the year when cases of gastroenteric diseases are most frequent, in order to establish whether there is a link between these disorders and water quality.
Fifty-six drinking water systems on First Nations reserves in Alberta, Canada were evaluated for their ability to protect public health. A detailed survey form was used during each site visit to collect information necessary for the public health evaluation of the water supply system from source water to the end consumer, based on a variety of potential risk factors. For the 56 water systems evaluated, 50 of the water supply systems were ranked as high risk, 5 were ranked as medium risk, and there was 1 low risk site. The numerical scores ranged from a low of 7.5 to a high of 92.5 out of 100.0, with a higher score representing a water system better equipped to supply water meeting the Guidelines for Canadian Drinking Water Quality. In addition to the unique cultural, political, social, and economic environment on First Nations reserves a major factor that made it difficult to comprehensively assess the level of potential risk at these sites was the lack of source water characterization for pathogens (especially protozoan parasites). A major challenge in these small communities was providing meaningful training to First Nations public works personnel in the context of their cultural beliefs so that they develop a feeling of responsibility and ownership in helping protect their community's health. Additionally, there were prevalent inadequacies in the bacteriological monitoring and testing programs on the reserves. Addressing these issues would allow for a better assessment of potential health risks on First Nation reserves in Alberta and allow these communities to better manage the risks to their drinking water systems on a continual basis. Key words: risk evaluation, drinking water treatment and distribution, small systems, First Nations.
In the past, environmental managers could behave as if they were managing a "natural" system to which they were external; criteria for successful management could be derived from historical data or from current pristine systems elsewhere in the world. With a few localized exceptions, this approach is no longer viable. Most of the ecosystems for which critical and urgent decisions need to be made are best seen as complex ecosocial systems, with people firmly embedded as an integral element. We can no longer manage ecosystems per se, but rather we must learn to manage our interactions within our ecological context. This view, which incorporates notions of multiple, interacting, nested hierarchies, feedback loops across space and time, and radical uncertainty with regard to prediction of system behavior, requires rethinking. How should we now think about science and science-based management? Post-normal science, complex systems theories, and the creation of collective narratives offer the best hope for making progress in this field. We use several ecosystem management and community health programs in Peru, Kenya, and Nepal to demonstrate the characteristics necessary for this kind of "inside-out" approach.
The constant comparative method (CCM) together with theoretical sampling constitutethe core of qualitative analysis in the grounded theory approach and in other types ofqualitative research. Since the application of the method remains rather unclear, researchers do not know how to `go about' the CCM in their research practice. This study contributes to a purposeful approach of the CCM in order to systematize the analysis process and to increase the traceability and verification of the analyses. The step by step approach is derived from and illustrated with an empirical study into the experience of multiple sclerosis (MS) by patients and their spousal care providers. In this study five different steps were distinguished on the basis of four criteria: (1) the data involved and the overall analysis activities, (2) the aim, (3) the results and (4) the questions asked. It is concluded that systematization of qualitative analysis results from the researcher using a sound plan for conducting CCM regarding these four aspects.
{textlessptextgreatertextless}br/textgreaterThis article proposes a shift toward the integrated governance of watersheds as a basis for fostering health, sustainability and social-ecological resilience. The authors suggest that integrated watershed governance is more likely when different perspectives, including health and well-being, are explicitly understood, communicated, and sought as co-benefits of watershed management. A new conceptual device - the watershed governance prism - is introduced in relation to the multiple facets of governance that characterize contemporary water resources management and examined as an integrative framework to link social and environmental concerns with the determinants of health in the watershed context. The authors assess the diagnostic and communicative potential of such a framework, discussing its utility as a concise depiction of multiple, interacting policy priorities and as a guide to integrate different research and policy domains into the governance of water, health and social-ecological systems.textless/ptextgreater
The impact of current and historical waste disposal practices on the environment and human health of Indigenous people in First Nations communities has yet to be adequately addressed. Solid waste disposal has been identified as a major environmental threat to First Nations Communities. A community-based participatory research project (CBPR) was initiated by the Saskatoon Tribal Council Health and Family Services Incorporated to investigate concerns related to waste disposal in three Saskatchewan First Nations Communities. Utilizing a qualitative approach, we aimed to gain an understanding of past and present waste disposal practices and to identify any human and environmental health concerns related to these practices. One to one interviews and sharing circles were conducted with Elders. Elders were asked to share their perspectives on past and present waste disposal practices and to comment on the possible impacts these practices may have on the environment and community health. Historically waste disposal practices were similar among communities. The homeowner generated small volumes of waste, was exclusively responsible for disposal and utilized a backyard pit. Overtime waste disposal evolved to weekly pick-up of un-segregated garbage with waste disposal and open trash burning in a community dump site. Dump site locations and open trash burning were identified as significant health issues related to waste disposal practices in these communities. This research raises issues of inequity in the management of waste in First Nations Communities. It highlights the need for long-term sustainable funding to support community-based waste disposal and management strategies and the development of First Nations centered and delivered educational programs to encourage the adoption and implementation of waste reduction, reutilization and recycling activities in these communities.
The third Canadian Arctic Human Health Assessment conducted under the Canadian Northern Contaminants Program (NCP), in association with the circumpolar Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), addresses concerns about possible adverse health effects in individuals exposed to environmental contaminants through a diet containing country foods. The objectives here are to: 1) provide data on changes in human contaminant concentrations and exposure among Canadian Arctic peoples; 2) identify new contaminants of concern; 3) discuss possible health effects; 4) outline risk communication about contaminants in country food; and 5) identify knowledge gaps for future contaminant research and monitoring. The nutritional and cultural benefits of country foods are substantial; however, some dietary studies suggest declines in the amount of country foods being consumed. Significant declines were found for most contaminants in maternal blood over the last 10 years within all three Arctic regions studied. Inuit continue to have the highest levels of almost all persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and metals among the ethnic groups studied. A greater proportion of people in the East exceed Health Canada's guidelines for PCBs and mercury, although the proportion of mothers exceeding these guidelines has decreased since the previous assessment. Further monitoring and research are required to assess trends and health effects of emerging contaminants. Infant development studies have shown possible subtle effects of prenatal exposure to heavy metals and some POPs on immune system function and neurodevelopment. New data suggest important beneficial effects on brain development for Inuit infants from some country food nutrients. The most successful risk communication processes balance the risks and benefits of a diet of country food through input from a variety of regional experts and the community, to incorporate the many socio-cultural and economic factors to arrive at a risk management decision that will be the most beneficial in Arctic communities.
We estimated the disease burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene at the global level taking into account various disease outcomes, principally diarrheal diseases. The disability-adjusted life year (DALY) combines the burden from death and disability in a single index and permits the comparison of the burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene with the burden from other risk factors or diseases. We divided the world's population into typical exposure scenarios for 14 geographical regions. We then matched these scenarios with relative risk information obtained mainly from intervention studies. We estimated the disease burden from water, sanitation, and hygiene to be 4.0% of all deaths and 5.7% of the total disease burden (in DALYs) occurring worldwide, taking into account diarrheal diseases, schistosomiasis, trachoma, ascariasis, trichuriasis, and hookworm disease. Because we based these estimates mainly on intervention studies, this burden is largely preventable. Other water- and sanitation-related diseases remain to be evaluated. This preliminary estimation of the global disease burden caused by water, sanitation, and hygiene provides a basic model that could be further refined for national or regional assessments. This significant and avoidable burden suggests that it should be a priority for public health policy.
Health disparities are, first and foremost, those indicators of a relative disproportionate burden of disease on a particular population. Health inequities point to the underlying causes of the disparities, many if not most of which sit largely outside of the typically constituted domain of "health". The literature reviewed for this synthesis document indicates that time and again health disparities are directly and indirectly associated with social, economic, cultural and political inequities; the end result of which is a disproportionate burden of ill health and social suffering upon the Aboriginal populations of Canada. In analyses of health disparities, it is as important to navigate the interstices between the person and the wider social and historical contexts as it is to pay attention to the individual effects of inequity. Research and policy must address the contemporary realities of Aboriginal health and well-being, including the individual and community-based effects of health disparities and the direct and indirect sources of those disparities.
In northern regions, climate change can include changes in precipitation magnitude and frequency, reductions in sea ice extent and thickness, and climate warming and cooling. These changes can increase the frequency and severity of storms, flooding, or erosion; other changes may include drought or degradation of permafrost. Climate change can result in damage to sanitation infrastructure resulting in the spread of disease or threatening a community's ability to maintain its economy, geographic location and cultural tradition, leading to mental stress. Through monitoring of some basic indicators communities can begin to develop a response to climate change. With this information, planners, engineers, health care professionals and governments can begin to develop approaches to address the challenges related to climate change.
Recent public attention on drinking water supplies in the aftermath of waterborne infection outbreaks in Walkerton and North Battleford raises questions about safety. We analyzed information on waterborne outbreaks occurring between 1974 and 2001 in order to identify apparent trends, review the current status of monitoring and reporting, and gain a better understanding of the impact of drinking water quality on public health and disease burden.
Data from outbreak investigations, published and unpublished, were categorized by the type of drinking water provider and were assessed to be definitely, probably or possibly waterborne in nature.
The final data set consisted of 288 outbreaks of disease linked to a drinking water source. There were 99 outbreaks in public water systems, 138 outbreaks in semi-public systems and 51 outbreaks in private systems. The main known causative agents of waterborne disease outbreaks were (in descending frequency of occurrence) Giardia, Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Norwalk-like viruses, Salmonella and hepatitis A virus.
We found that severe weather, close proximity to animal populations, treatment system malfunctions, poor maintenance and treatment practices were associated with the reported disease outbreaks resulting from drinking water supplies. However, issues related to the accuracy, co-ordination, compatibility and detail of data exist. A systematic and coordinated national surveillance system for comparison purposes, trend identification and policy development is needed so that future waterborne disease outbreaks can be avoided.
We investigated the relationship between the presence of in-home piped water and wastewater services and hospitalization rates for respiratory tract, skin, and gastrointestinal tract infections in rural Alaska.
We determined in-home water service and hospitalizations for selected infectious diseases among Alaska Natives by region during 2000 to 2004. Within 1 region, infant respiratory hospitalizations and skin infections for all ages were compared by village-level water services.
Regions with a lower proportion of home water service had significantly higher hospitalization rates for pneumonia and influenza (rate ratio [RR] = 2.5), skin or soft tissue infection (RR = 1.9), and respiratory syncytial virus (RR = 3.4 among those younger than 5 years) than did higher-service regions. Within 1 region, infants from villages with less than 10% of homes served had higher hospitalization rates for pneumonia (RR = 1.3) and respiratory syncytial virus (RR = 1.2) than did infants from villages with more than 80% served. Outpatient Staphylococcus aureus infections (RR = 5.1, all ages) and skin infection hospitalizations (RR = 2.7, all ages) were higher in low-service than in high-service villages.
Higher respiratory and skin infection rates were associated with a lack of in-home water service. This disparity should be addressed through sanitation infrastructure improvements.
The Arctic regions are inhabited by diverse populations, both indigenous and non-indigenous. Health Transitions in Arctic Populations describes and explains changing health patterns in these areas, how particular patterns came about, and what can be done to improve the health of Arctic peoples. This study correlates changes in health status with major environmental, social, economic, and political changes in the Arctic. T. Kue Young and Peter Bjerregaard seek commonalities in the experiences of different peoples while recognizing their considerable diversity. They focus on five Arctic regions ? Greenland, Northern Canada, Alaska, Arctic Russia, and Northern Fennoscandia, offering a general overview of the geography, history, economy, population characteristics, health status, and health services of each. The discussion moves on to specific indigenous populations (Inuit, Dene, and Sami), major health determinants and outcomes, and, finally, an integrative examination of what can be done to improve the health of circumpolar peoples. Health Transitions in Arctic Populations offers both an examination of key health issues in the north and a vision for the future of Arctic inhabitants.
In order to manage water resources it is necessary to take into account not just the amount of water that is used but also its quality. What is usually meant by the term ‘water quality’ is the magnitudes of the physical attributes (like temperature and conductivity) and the concentrations of chemical constituents (like nitrogen, calcium, or aluminium) of a sample of water, although the term ‘water quality’ in fact implies judgement about the suitability of water for a particular use. Sea water is of ‘good’ quality for a marine fish, for instance, but of very poor quality for an insect living in a mountain stream, or for a human being consuming the water. To keep things simple, we will use the term ‘water quality’ to mean ‘what the water is like and what is in it’. In this chapter we show why natural waters differ physically and chemically from each other; then we explain the importance of some of the major physical attributes and chemical constituents of water, and why some can be considered as pollutants. When describing the contents and effects of a variety of effluents on aquatic ecosystems, we make some comments on management of water impaired by various human activities.
Water safety plans provide a relatively new management approach for identifying and addressing risks in a water supply. In 2011, the province of Alberta (Canada) became the first jurisdiction in North America to require that all water supplies develop drinking water safety plans (DWSPs). This research explored the implementation of DWSPs through the experiences of 'early adopter' operators who work in small communities. Specifically, in-person open-ended qualitative interviews with operators from 15 small communities from across Alberta were conducted to explore implementation challenges and opportunities. The findings highlight a number of barriers associated with the relationships between decision-making bodies, regulatory authorities and water operators, all of which have the potential to support or hinder the uptake of a DWSP. Findings also indicate that a DWSP can act as a bridge, providing a much-needed tool to facilitate communication about water supplies and help to support and manage relationships between stakeholders. This study revealed a number of important and useful insights to the small community early DWSP adopter experience in Canada that could be applied in other jurisdictions looking to adopt similar practices.
Currently, tundra wetlands are used to treat municipal wastewater in many Arctic communities, typically following primary treatment from a wastewater stabilization pond. Inclusion of tundra wetlands as part of the municipal wastewater treatment strategy for the Canadian Arctic is an option to meet upcoming federal Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations (WSER). Water quality improvement has been demonstrated in tundra wastewater treatment wetlands; however, the mechanisms responsible for this observed treatment are not well understood. In this study, we conducted a detailed physical, hydraulic, and biogeochemical analysis of a tundra wetland receiving primary treated municipal wastewater in Coral Harbour, Nunavut. The primary objective was to gain a better understanding of the processes which contribute to water quality improvement within these types of environmental systems. Data were collected during four study periods throughout the treatment season, between mid-June 2011 and early-September 2012. Study results illustrated seasonal variability in the treatment performance and hydraulic characteristics of the wetland. Hydraulic residence times (HRTs) as short as 11 h were observed during the spring freshet, and as long as 14 days in mid-summer. Short HRTs in the spring freshet suggested the observed reduction of wastewater constituents was primarily by dilution from watershed contributions. Biogeochemical data showed seasonal increases in pH and DO, which were driven by algae growth, which corresponded to increases in TSS, and decreases in E. coli and nitrogen species. During the entire treatment season, the wetland effluent met the WSER, which does not currently include Nunavut, Canada. Contaminant concentration reductions were variable over the treatment season with the minimum reductions observed during the spring freshet (92.5% of BOD5, 3.7 log of E. coli, 95.4% of TSS, 77.3% of TN, 73.7% of TAN, 46.2% of NH3-N, and 78.9% of TP). Requisites for the responsible use of a wetland for wastewater treatment in an arctic setting should include the characterization of hydrological setting to quantify how external hydrologic inputs will influence treatment performance.
Fundamental to community health and well-being is the capacity to access a sustainable supply of safe drinking water. Small community drinking water systems are the most vulnerable to contamination, and struggle to secure the funds necessary to improve water treatment and delivery systems, and meet increasingly stringent drinking water quality regulations. Little is known of the contextual and cultural differences between communities and the impact this has on regulatory compliance. This study explored the experiences and impact of individual actors within seven small community drinking water systems in locations across Canada. Qualitative, in-person interviews were conducted with water operators, consumers, and decision-makers in each community, and these findings were analysed thematically. Findings from the study show that communities approach and align with compliance challenges in three distinct ways: by adopting regulator-provided or regulator-driven solutions, by adopting an existing improvement framework (i.e. regionalization), or through reinvention to address a new issue or concern. Policy-makers looking to align small communities with appropriate water quality goals may benefit from a consideration of these contextual and cultural differences.
Enteric illness associated with foodborne and waterborne disease is thought to be common in some Canadian Indigenous communities. This study aimed to understand the lived experience of acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI), including symptoms and severity, perceived causes, and healthcare seeking behaviors of AGI in the small Inuit community of Rigolet, Canada. A concurrent mixed quantitative and qualitative methods design was used. Two cross-sectional retrospective surveys provided quantitative data to examine self-reported AGI symptoms and the distribution of potential risk factors in the community. Qualitative data from in-depth interviews with one-third of AGI cases were analyzed using a constant-comparative method to describe symptoms and severity, identify perceived risk factors, and explore health seeking behavior of AGI in Rigolet. Of the survey respondents reporting AGI, most reported symptoms of diarrhea without vomiting, followed by diarrhea with vomiting, and vomiting without diarrhea. The most common secondary symptoms included stomach cramps and abdominal pain, nausea, and extreme tiredness. Community members identified potential risk factors for AGI that reflect the epidemiology triad (host, agent, and environmental factors), including hygiene, retail food, tap water, boil water advisories, and personal stress. Risk aversion and healthcare seeking behaviors reflected the core constructs of the Health Belief Model (perceived susceptibility, severity, and benefits and barriers to action). Understanding community experience, perspectives, and beliefs related to AGI is useful for public health practitioners and health care providers. This information is important especially considering the relatively high estimated burden of AGI and the relatively low healthcare seeking behaviors in some Indigenous communities compared to national estimates. Moreover, the mixed-methods approach used to understand the burden of AGI could be extended to other health research in Indigenous contexts.
Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is generally understood as a process by which decision-making power and ownership are shared between the researcher and the community involved, bi-directional research capacity and co-learning are promoted, and new knowledge is co-created and disseminated in a manner that is mutually beneficial for those involved. Within the field of Canadian geography we are seeing emerging interest in using CBPR as a way of conducting meaningful and relevant research with Indigenous communities. However, individual interpretations of CBPR's tenets and the ways in which CBPR is operationalized are, in fact, highly variable. In this article we report the findings of an exploratory qualitative case study involving semi-structured, open-ended interviews with Canadian university-based geographers and social scientists in related disciplines who engage in CBPR to explore the relationship between their conceptual understanding of CBPR and their applied research. Our findings reveal some of the tensions for university-based researchers concerning CBPR in theory and practice. © Canadian Association of Geographers / L'Association canadienne des géographes.
In this paper we investigate the formability of multiphase steels. A new model based on crystal plasticity has been developed to investigate large strain phenomena in multiphase steels. The approach is based on the concept of a unit cell. The unit cell is defined as a globally small region of the sheet that contains all the essential micro-structural and textural features that characterize the sheet. Orientations within the measured texture data are randomly assigned in the mesh/unit cell. In other words, each element of the mesh represents an orientation from the measured texture and the constitutive response at a material point is given by the single crystal constitutive model. This model is employed to construct forming limit diagrams for multiphase steels.
Climate change has been identified as potentially the biggest health threat of the 21st century. Canada in general has a well developed public health system and low burden of health which will moderate vulnerability. However, there is significant heterogeneity in health outcomes, and health inequality is particularly pronounced among Aboriginal Canadians. Intervention is needed to prevent, prepare for, and manage climate change effects on Aboriginal health but is constrained by a limited understanding of vulnerability and its determinants. Despite limited research on climate change and Aboriginal health, however, there is a well established literature on Aboriginal health outcomes, determinants, and trends in Canada; characteristics that will determine vulnerability to climate change. In this paper we systematically review this literature, using a vulnerability framework to identify the broad level factors constraining adaptive capacity and increasing sensitivity to climate change. Determinants identified include: poverty, technological capacity constraints, socio-political values and inequality, institutional capacity challenges, and information deficit. The magnitude and nature of these determinants will be distributed unevenly within and between Aboriginal populations necessitating place-based and regional level studies to examine how these broad factors will affect vulnerability at lower levels. The study also supports the need for collaboration across all sectors and levels of government, open and meaningful dialogue between policy makers, scientists, health professionals, and Aboriginal communities, and capacity building at a local level, to plan for climate change. Ultimately, however, efforts to reduce the vulnerability of Aboriginal Canadians to climate change and intervene to prevent, reduce, and manage climate-sensitive health outcomes, will fail unless the broader determinants of socio-economic and health inequality are addressed.
A review of 31 empirical and eighteen substantive papers by qualitative social geographers mainly using in-depth interviews reveals little explicit reference to the principle(s) adopted to enhance ‘rigour’ and to ensure meaningful inference. Given the modest explicit discussion of evaluative criteria in these papers, a scheme from evaluation research itself is critically reviewed. A set of evaluation questions derived from this review and their application to an empirical piece of qualitative work frame an argument for a general set of criteria rather than rigid rules for assessing qualitative work. Such criteria can serve as anchor points for qualitative evaluation.
Climate change is expected to cause changes in precipitation quantity, intensity, frequency and duration, which will subsequently alter environmental conditions and might increase the risk of waterborne disease. The objective of this study was to describe the seasonality of and explore associations between weather, water quality and occurrence of infectious gastrointestinal illnesses (IGI) in two communities in Nunatsiavut, Canada. Weather data were obtained from meteorological stations in Nain (2005-2008) and Rigolet (2008). Free-chlorine residual levels in drinking water were extracted from municipal records (2005-2008). Raw surface water was tested weekly for total coliform and E. coli counts. Daily counts of IGI-related clinic visits were obtained from health clinic registries (2005-2008). Analysis of weather and health variables included seasonal-trend decomposition procedures based on Loess. Multivariable zero-inflated Poisson regression was used to examine potential associations between weather events (considering 0-4 week lag periods) and IGI-related clinic visits. In Nain, water volume input (rainfall + snowmelt) peaked in spring and summer and was positively associated with levels of raw water bacteriological variables. The number of IGI-related clinic visits peaked in the summer and fall months. Significant positive associations were observed between high levels of water volume input 2 and 4 weeks prior, and IGI-related clinic visits (P < 0.05). This study is the first to systematically gather, analyse and compare baseline data on weather, water quality and health in Nunatsiavut, and illustrates the need for high quality temporal baseline information to allow for detection of future impacts of climate change on regional Inuit human and environmental health.
Studies that explore social capital and political will [corrected] in the context of safe drinking water provision in [corrected] Canada are limited. This paper presents findings from a study that examines the capacity of rural Canadian communities to attain regulatory compliance for drinking water. Interviews were conducted with water operators and managers in ten rural communities across Atlantic Canada to identify the burden of compliance arising from the implementation of, and adherence to, drinking water regulations. This research identifies the operator as being particularly burdened by regulatory compliance, often resulting in negative consequences including job stress and a strained relationship with the community they serve. Findings indicate that while regulations are vital to ensuring safe drinking water, not all communities have the resources in place to rise to the challenge of compliance. As a result, some communities are being negatively impacted by these regulations, rather than benefit from their intended positive effect.
Housing conditions were assessed in 2 Canadian First Nations communities. Possible associations with tuberculosis (TB) were explored. Study design. Participatory community-based survey.
Qualitative and quantitative data on housing and health were collected in the northern Dené community at Lac Brochet (LB), which has experienced endemic and epidemic TB, and the southern Ojibwa community at Valley River (VR), which has not. Results. 72 of 135 (53%) houses at LB and 57 of 95 (60%) houses at VR were enrolled. Houses in both communities were small (mean 882 and 970 sq. ft., respectively) compared to the Manitoba average (1,200 sq. ft.). Crowding was evident at LB (mean persons per room [ppr] 1.1) and VR (mean ppr 0.9). The provincial mean ppr is 0.5. However, only 49% of householders at LB and 19% at VR felt "crowded" in their homes. More than two-thirds of houses had absent or non-functional heat recovery ventilation systems. Mould was observed in 44% of LB houses and 19% of VR houses. At LB a significant association was found between the number of permanent residents in the house and the presence of selfreported latent or active TB, either currently or during residence in that house (p=0.001).
Houses that were studied in these 2 First Nations communities were predominantly small, crowded and in poor repair. An association was found between the number of persons in a house and self-reported TB. Improved housing conditions in First Nations communities are indicated to promote and sustain health as well as human and Indigenous rights.
"Over the last 100 years, there have been major changes in the way Iñupiaq villages in Alaska have procured fresh water for drinking and other human uses. Since the 1960s, major funding has been provided by local, state, and federal agencies to install centralized water systems in these villages. These systems have arrived with great expectations, and yet many of them have a myriad of problems due to harsh weather conditions, low winter temperatures, and permafrost. Other obstacles to success of the water systems arise from local preference for traditional water resources. On the Seward Peninsula, some villages rely heavily on centralized water systems, while others continue to rely more heavily on traditional water sources. We demonstrate in this paper that local variables, including different environmental factors and a sense of agency in the modernization process, affect local choices about whether or not to use the centralized water systems. We conclude that local, culturally specific ideas about health and acceptable drinking water quality must be taken into account for these projects to be successful."
Recent epidemiology studies examining U.S. recreational water exposure and illness relationships have focused primarily on coastal and Great Lakes beaches. Human-made lakes in the U.S. have received little attention in epidemiology studies despite contributing to more waterborne disease epidemics annually than coastal U.S. waters. In a comprehensive beach cohort study, we examined relationships between water quality indicators and reported adverse health outcomes among users of a beach at an inland U.S. lake. Human health data was collected over 26 swimming days during the 2009 swimming season in conjunction with water quality measurements. Adverse health outcomes were reported 8-9 days post-exposure via a phone survey. Wading, playing or swimming in the water was observed to be a significant risk factor for GI illness (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) of 3.2; CI 1.1, 9.0). Among water users, Escherichia coli density was significantly associated with elevated GI illness risk where the highest E. coli quartile was associated with an AOR of 7.0 (CI 1.5, 32). GI illness associations are consistent with previous freshwater epidemiology studies. Our findings are unique in that our observations of positive associations with GI illness risk are based upon a single daily E. coli measurement. Lastly, this study focused on an understudied issue, illness risk at inland reservoirs. Our results support the usefulness of E. coli as a health-relevant indicator of water quality for this inland U.S. beach.
Sustaining clean and safe drinking water sources is increasingly becoming a priority because of global pollution. The means of attaining and maintaining clean drinking water sources requires effective policies that identify, document, and reduce watershed risks. These risks are defined by their potential impact to human health. Health and risk are, therefore, indelibly linked because they are in part defined by each other. Understanding pathogen ecology and identifying watershed sources remains a priority because of the associated acute risks. Surface water quality changes resulting from inputs of human waste, nutrients and chemicals are associated with higher drinking water risks. Nutrient input can increase primary production and the resulting increase of organic matter results in greater disinfection by-product formation or requires greater treatment intensity. Many drinking water disease outbreaks have resulted from breaches in treatment facilities, therefore, even with greater treatment intensity poor source water quality intrinsically has greater associated health risks. Government and international agencies play a critical role in developing policy. The goal of maintaining water supplies whose availability is maximized and risks are minimized (i.e. sustainable) should be a vital part of such policy. Health risks are discussed in the context of a multi-barrier perspective and it is concluded that both passive (protection) and active (prescriptive management) management is necessary for sustainability. Canadian aboriginal water systems, British Columbian water policy and US EPA policies are given as examples. The basis for developing effective policies includes a strong reliance on sound science and effective instrumentation with careful consideration of stakeholders' interests. Only with such directed policies can the future availability of clean drinking water sources be ensured.
Arctic indigenous peoples face significant challenges resulting from the contamination of Arctic air, water, and soil by persistent organic pollutants, heavy metals, and radionuclides. International cooperative efforts among governments and research institutions are under way to collect the information needed by environmental health scientists and public health officials to address environmental contamination in the Arctic. However, the climatic, political, and cultural conditions of the land and its native populations combine to present a unique set of scientific and logistic challenges to addressing this important public health issue. Public health officials have the responsibility to respect the cultural traditions of indigenous communities, while simultaneously designing strategies that will reduce their exposure to environmental contaminants and rates of disease and dysfunction. Researchers can better understand the link between environmental exposures and disease through monitoring programs for both the subsistence diets and health status of the indigenous populations. We suggest that the incorporation of community-based participatory research methods into programs designed to assess biomarkers of contaminant exposure in children and adults may be a valuable addition to ongoing and newly developed research programs. This approach could serve as a model for international environmental health initiatives, because it involves the participation of the local communities and seeks to builds trust between all stakeholders.
Drinking water is a major source of microbial pathogens in developing regions, although poor sanitation and food sources are integral to enteric pathogen exposure. Gastrointestinal disease outcomes are also more severe, due to under-nutrition and lack of intervention strategies in these regions. Poor water quality, sanitation and hygiene account for some 1.7 million deaths a year world-wide (3.1% of all deaths and 3.7% of all DALY's), mainly through infectious diarrhoea. Nine out of 10 such deaths are in children and virtually all of the deaths are in developing countries. Major enteric pathogens in these children include: rotavirus, Campylobacter jejuni, enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Shigella spp. and Vibrio cholerae O1, and possibly enteropathogenic E. coli, Aeromonas spp. V. cholerae O139, enterotoxigenic Bacteroides fragilis, Clostridium difficile and Cryptosporidium parvum. All except the latter are easily control by chlorination of water, but recontamination of treated water is a huge problem. Emerging environmental pathogens, such as Helicobacter pylori and Burkholderia pseudomallei, may well be of significance in some regions. In adults, much less is understood of various sequellae such as myocarditis, diabetes, reactive arthritis and cancers some months-years after initial infections. So in addition to the traditional pathogens (helminths, Entamoeba histolytica, Giardia lamblia hepatitis A and E) various enteroviruses, C. jejuni and H. pylori are emerging issues in adults.
Residents of affluent nations are remarkably lucky to have high-quality, safe drinking water supplies that most residents of modem cities enjoy, particularly when considered in contrast to the toll of death and misery that unsafe drinking water causes for most of the world's population. Some may presume that drinking-water disease outbreaks are a thing of the past, but complacency can easily arise. A review of drinking water outbreaks in developed countries over the past 3 decades reveals some of the reasons why drinking water outbreaks keep occurring when society clearly has the means to prevent them. Prevention of future outbreaks does not demand perfection, only a commitment to learn from past mistakes and to act on what has been learned.
This article presents an adaptable community-based monitoring (CBM) framework. The investigators used a well-tested conceptual CBM framework developed by the Canadian Community Monitoring Network (CCMN) as a basis from which to work. With the use of feedback from various types of CBM groups in the Province of Nova Scotia, Canada, obtained through surveys and interviews, the CCMN framework was modified into a document that attempts to address current disparities and inefficiencies within most CBM systems. The need for such a framework was underscored by the lack of stewardship groups' use of standardized monitoring protocols and inability to effectively provide information to decision makers. From the information collected through the survey, it was concluded that the proposed framework must be a functional, multiparty form of CBM that addresses the key concerns of a standardized monitoring and communication program and must be able to be fed into the environmental-management system.
Coral Harbour Nunavut: Aboriginal Population Profile
Statistics Canada, 2007. Coral Harbour Nunavut: Aboriginal Population Profile 2006
Census (92-594-XWE). http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/
dp-pd/prof/92-594/index.cfm?Lang¼E.
Geographic Information Systems for the Social Sciences: Investigating Space and Place
- J Steinberg
- S Steinberg
Steinberg, J., Steinberg, S., 2006. Geographic Information Systems for the Social
Sciences: Investigating Space and Place. Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks,
CA.
Health through Safe Drinking Water and Basic Sanitation
World Health Organization, 2013. Health through Safe Drinking Water and Basic
Sanitation. http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/mdg1/en/index.html.