Bereskie Ty, Rodriguez Manuel J, Sadiq Rehan
School of Engineering, University of British Columbia, Kelowna, BC, V1V 1V7, Canada.
ESAD, Laval University, Quebec City, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada.
Environ Manage. 2017 Aug;60(2):243-262. doi: 10.1007/s00267-017-0873-9. Epub 2017 Apr 19.
Drinking water management in Canada is complex, with a decentralized, three-tiered governance structure responsible for safe drinking water throughout the country. The current approach has been described as fragmented, leading to governance gaps, duplication of efforts, and an absence of accountability and enforcement. Although there have been no major waterborne disease outbreaks in Canada since 2001, a lack of performance improvement, especially in small drinking water systems, is evident. The World Health Organization water safety plan approach for drinking water management represents an alternative preventative management framework to the current conventional, reactive drinking water management strategies. This approach has seen successful implementation throughout the world and has the potential to address many of the issues with drinking water management in Canada. This paper presents a review and strengths-weaknesses-opportunities-threats analysis of drinking water management and governance in Canada at the federal, provincial/territorial, and municipal levels. Based on this analysis, a modified water safety plan (defined as the plan-do-check-act (PDCA)-WSP framework) is proposed, established from water safety plan recommendations and the principles of PDCA for continuous performance improvement. This proposed framework is designed to strengthen current drinking water management in Canada and is designed to fit within and incorporate the existing governance structure.
加拿大的饮用水管理十分复杂，其采用分散的三级治理结构来负责全国的安全饮用水供应。当前的管理方式被形容为碎片化，导致治理漏洞、工作重复，且缺乏问责制和执行力。尽管自2001年以来加拿大未发生重大水传播疾病疫情，但明显存在绩效改进不足的问题，尤其是在小型饮用水系统中。世界卫生组织的饮用水管理水安全计划方法是一种有别于当前传统的、被动式饮用水管理策略的预防性管理框架。该方法在全球范围内已成功实施，且有潜力解决加拿大饮用水管理中的诸多问题。本文对加拿大联邦、省/地区和市级层面饮用水管理与治理进行了综述，并开展了优势-劣势-机会-威胁分析。基于此分析，提出了一种改进的水安全计划（定义为计划-执行-检查-行动（PDCA）-水安全计划框架），该框架依据水安全计划建议以及PDCA持续绩效改进原则制定。这一框架旨在加强加拿大当前的饮用水管理，并与现有治理结构相契合且融入其中。
