Municipal Drinking Water and Waste Water

Municipal drinking water and waste water in the NWT is regulated through Municipal water licences.

The identification of needs, such as training and support that would help enable communities to apply for, and/or comply with their community water licence, is also important for water stewardship. Communities and other water partners have identified and are continuing to address challenges related to preparing water licence applications and complying with water licences. For example, several land and water boards recently released user-friendly form-fillable template documents to help guide communities through municipal water licence application processes.

In a number of communities, training has been provided to help ensure compliance with water licences. This training is typically for monitoring of municipal effluent or wastewater. Different initiatives have been led by a variety of water partners, including:

The GNWT Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) has staff who travel to communities and are familiar with the sampling requirement for municipal water licences. MACA can provide sampling assistance to operators upon request. Training for solid waste and wastewater facility operators is available through MACA’s School of Community Government Water and Waste Management Program. MACA has made funding assistance available, upon request, for communities preparing a water licence application. The priority for this funding is for communities that do not have an existing water licence in place.

Work is also underway to improve the sharing of information on municipal drinking water in the NWT. The NWT Drinking Water website provides information to NWT residents on the treatment and distribution of municipal drinking water. The website provides an overview of the roles and responsibilities to municipal drinking water, in addition to other relevant educational information.