Mylene Ratelle,Leon Andrew, Jessie Yakeleya, Andrew Spring, Brian Douglas Laird, Deborah Simmons, Alexa Scully, Kelly Skinner (2022). Drinking water perception and consumption in sub-arctic Indigenous communities in the Northwest Territories and Yukon. Proceedings of the GWF Annual Open Science Meeting, May 16-18, 2022.

To complement several community-based projects on water monitoring and management, a research project was completed to characterize the consumption of water and identify the perception of water for Indigenous communities from the Northwest Territories (NWT) and Yukon (YT). As part of a larger research program, data on water consumption and perceptions were available from surveys and a focus group. The focus group was conducted with Elders in an on-the-land camp setting in the NWT. The consumption of water in winter was 0.9L/day on average (including tea and coffee). Of the 81% of respondents who reported consuming water in the previous 24-hours of the survey, 33% drank more bottled water than tap water. About 2% of respondents consumed water from the land (during the winter season). Chlorine smell was the main limiting factor reported to the consumption of tap water. Findings from the focus group suggested Indigenous knowledge might impact both the perception and consumption of water. People are recommended to “make water your drink of choice”. But, our findings indicate that several factors can prevent people from drinking water. We will present the water issues, the collaborative methods used in our project, as well as key findings.

AOSM2022 Partially funded by the Northern Water Futures (based at U.Wilfird Laurier, PI: G.Baltzer) First Author: Mylene Ratelle, University of Waterloo Additional Authors: Leon Andrew, Sahtu Renewable Resources Board; Jessie Yakeleya, Sahtu Renewable Resources Board; Andrew Spring, Wilfrid Laurier University; Brian Douglas Laird, University of Waterloo; Deborah Simmons, Sahtu Renewable Resources Board; Alexa Scully, Lakehead University; Kelly Skinner, University of Waterloo