Overall Health
Percent of the 25 major watersheds rated as 'good' or 'very good' for overall health
It’s important to be transparent that this Shared Measurement System was designed from a non-Indigenous worldview and we recognize that Indigenous ways of knowing are absent from it. For more information on this positioning, see our Right Relations page.
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Our Ambitious Goal
All Waters in Canada in Good Health by 2030
Our ambitious goal of all waters in Canada in good health by 2030 unites the Our Living Waters Network towards an important future, but it’s hard to measure on its own. To measure our collective progress towards the ambitious goal, we first need to have a clear understanding of what good water health means.
Water Health Indicators
We’ve adopted six water health indicators from WWF-Canada’s Watershed Reports. These indicators track the health of waters in Canada and signal if conditions are getting better or worse, and if we are moving closer or further away from achieving the ambitious goal:
28%
36%
Benthic Invertebrates
Percent of the 25 major watersheds rated as 'good' or 'very good' for bugs (benthic invertebrates)
52%
Fish
Percent of the 25 major watersheds rated as 'good' or 'very good' for fish
24%
Water Quality
Percent of the 25 major watersheds rated as 'good' or 'very good' for water quality
28%
Overall Threats
Percent of the 25 major watersheds given an overall threat rating of 'low'
28%
Water Flow
Percent of the 25 major watersheds rated as 'good' or 'very good’ for water flow
Together, the North Star
Our ambitious goal and water health indicators provide a north star for organizations within the OLW Network to head towards.
However, these metrics are high-level, measuring water health itself.
We still need to determine all the different ways we need to take action to improve water health.
Impact Measures
That’s where impact measures come in. They’re our tangible strategy to guide the many actors in the freshwater community to work together as a connected and aligned Network.
There are 24 impact measures organized into four categories (Robust & Accessible Information, Informed & Engaged People, Our Blue Footprint and Water Policy & Governance). Impact measures are used to guide and measure our collective progress. Hover over individual Impact Measures inside each category for at-a-glance stats, or click through for detailed information and data.
For a detailed explanation of the Shared Measurement System, download our primer.
Robust & Accessible Information
Accessible Data
Percent of 167 sub-watersheds that have sufficient, accessible data allowing WWF-Canada's Watershed Reports to assess their overall health
40%
Decision Makers
Average level of agreement (1 to 10) among selected water decision makers with the statement “In general, when faced with a decision related to water-resource management, I am able to obtain information of sufficient quality to make a sound decision"
6.1
Most common quality concerns with available water-related data in Canada cited by selected water decision makers: Data gaps and lack of comparability
Share of selected water decision makers citing data gaps as a water-related data quality concern: 42%
Open Access Hubs
Number of Canada’s threatened watershed basins (23) with high quality open access water data hubs
11 of 23
Overall quality of open access water data hubs for threatened watershed basins in Canada: Medium
Highly or very highly threatened watershed basins that do not have high-quality open access water data hubs: the Ottawa, Great Lakes, Okanagan-Similkameen, Columbia and Fraser-Lower Mainland basin
Informed & Engaged People
Citizen Legal Action
No. of federal and provincial/territorial jurisdictions with at least one mechanism for citizens to drive enforcement of a water-related law
No data to date
Freshwater Awareness
Percent of people who have an accurate sense (awareness) of the health of and threats to freshwater
No data to date
Media
Percent change in traditional media stories on water impacts
From a baseline of 31,048 stories in 2007
2012: -3%
2017: -13%
2018: -12%
2019: -18%
Supporter Actions
Supporter base who acted for freshwater health in the last year
No data to date
Our Blue Footprint
Combined Sewer Overflow
The number of combined sewer overflow locations across the country within how many municipalities, and the volume of untreated sewage coming from these sources.
# of CSO locations (2015): 1,516
# of municipalities (2015): 130
Volume of untreated sewage (2017): 164,300,000 cubic metres
Drinking Water Advisories
Total number of communities with drinking water advisories, including Indigenous communities (on Nov 11, 2021)
978
-
Share of drinking water advisories on November 11, 2021 that had been active for one month or longer: 92%
- Share that had been active for a year or longer: 52%
-
Number of drinking water advisories active on November 11, 2021 in Indigenous communities: 99
- Share of Indigenous community drinking water advisories on November 11, 2021 that had been active for one month or longer: 88%
- Share that had been active for a year or longer: 46%
-
Share of all national drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities: 10%
-
Share of Canadian population living on First Nations reserves (2016): 1%
- Change in the number of active drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities from June 2017: -8%
-
Share of Canadian population living on First Nations reserves (2016): 1%
Government Financing for Protection
Ratio of all government spending on biodiversity and landscape protection to spending on fuel and energy programs
33% (in 2017)
Average inflation-adjusted spending per person by federal and provincial/territorial governments on biodiversity and landscape protection from 2008 to 2017: $48
Average inflation-adjusted spending per person by federal and provincial/territorial governments on fuel and energy programs (including subsidies) from 2008 to 2017: $158
Green Infrastructure
No. of communities with Transformative Green Infrastructure programs
0
Harmful Algae Blooms
Number of provinces/territories with water-quality monitoring programs with the potential to estimate the number of water bodies impacted by algal blooms
0
Number of freshwater bodies impacted by algal blooms in Canada: Unknown but growing
Legislating Restoration
Number of jurisdictions in which environmental restoration is codified in environmental legislation through direct application of the polluter-pays-principle
Three
Number of jurisdictions in which the PPP is not explicitly enshrined in legislation but the obligation for polluters to pay for restoration is nonetheless clear: Four
Number of jurisdictions in which the PPP is not explicitly enshrined in legislation and the obligation for polluters to pay for restoration is at the discretion of government officials: Seven
Municipal Natural Asset Management
Number of municipalities adopting municipal natural asset management approaches
No data to date
Pipeline Threats
Percent of 167 sub-watersheds threatened by federally monitored pipeline incidents.
16%
Water Policy & Governance
Drinking Water Source Protection
No. of provincial and territorial jurisdictions with source water protection programs designed to protect drinking water from source to tap
7
+4 with partial protections
Enforceable Water Quality Standards
Number of provinces and territories with enforceable surface water quality standards
0
Number of Canadian governments with no surface water quality standards: 8
Number of Canadian governments with surface water quality standards (although not enforceable): 6
Environmental Flow Standards
Number of federal and provincial/territorial jurisdictions with enforceable environmental flow standards
No data to date
Freshwater Policy
Number of federal and provincial/territorial jurisdictions with a freshwater policy and/or law less than ten years old
7
Human Right to Water
No. of federal and provincial/territorial jurisdictions formally recognizing the human right to water
1
+2 jurisdictions with recognition but NO legislation
National Drinking Water Standards
Do enforceable national drinking water standards exist?
Enforceable national drinking water standards do not exist
Recreational Water Quality
No. of provinces and territories that have:
a) established recreational water quality monitoring guidelines
6
b) a system of communicating results to the public
1
Watershed Entities & Plans
Percent of sub-watersheds with a watershed entity and a watershed plan
20%
Of the 167 watersheds:
- 33 (20%) have a watershed entity (or multiple entities) and a watershed plan for the whole watershed (or a large portion)
- 7 (4%) have a watershed entity (or entities) and plan for a portion of the watershed only
- 122 (73%) do not have a watershed entity (or entities) and a watershed plan (or only a very small portion is covered)
- 5 (3%) are unknown (data deficient)
- A detailed breakdown of the 167 watersheds can be found here.
Watershed Governance
Percent of major 25 watersheds with a mechanism in place to support watershed governance
52%
Of the 25 major watersheds:
- 13 (52%) have a mechanism to support watershed governance for the whole watershed or a large portion of it
- 1 (4%) have a mechanism to support watershed governance for a portion of the watershed
- 9 (36%) have no mechanism to support watershed governance for the watershed (or only a very small portion is covered)
- 2 (8%) are unknown (data deficient)
- A detailed breakdown of the 25 major watersheds can be found here.
Note: The data presented here represents our best research given the time and resources at hand. We acknowledge there may be errors. This shared measurement system belongs to all members of the Our Living Water Network, so if you have any corrections for us, or ideas to share on this measure, please send us an email at [email protected].