Supervised by:

Stéphanie Guilherme (Regular member)

Research project description

Study and real-time assessment of water quality in potable water tanks at home in Nunavik

IntroductionIn Nunavik, there is no outdoor water distribution system because of the risk of freeze due to the weather conditions. Inhabitants are supplied with water with the help of trucks that are used only for the transportation of potable water. These trucks ride from the water treatment plant (one in each community) to the house of the inhabitants. Each house has at least one potable water tank that can contain 1200 Liters of water. What’s the quality of the potable water inside the potable water tank at home in Nunavik? What can we implement in order to assess in real-time the quality of the water inside the potable water tank at home? ObjectivesGoals of this study are to : -Characterize the quality of the water inside the potable water tank at home in Nunavik -Implement real-time sensors inside the potable water tank at home and assess the needs in order to design q new tank for the potable water tank at home. Study sitesThis study concerns potable water tank at home in Nunavik (North of Quebec). Nunavik is composed of 14 villages. In Summer 2024, I have done a sampling campaign in Kuujjuaq with other students. This sampling campaign lasted 3 weeks and the goal was to obtain a global portrait of the quality of the water inside potable water tank at home in Nunavik. It is possible that I do another sampling campaign in another village in Nunavik in Summer 2025. For the moment (September 2024), I don’t have any information concerning the duration and the place. In each sampling campaign, I have to interact with local people but also with Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social Services, regional administration in Nunavik and mayors of Nunavik villages. Material and methodsI’ll have to write a literature review to obtain existing information concerning the quality of potable water in Nunavik. I have a done with other students a sampling campaign in Summer 2024 order to obtain a portrait of the quality of the water inside potable water tank at home in Nunavik. We will implement a lab scale tank at Université Laval to evaluate the feasibility to improve domestic tanks with water quality sensors. In addition to what was mentioned above, I gave a survey to some inhabitants of Kuujjuaq in summer 2024. We will know more about : -The water access in the village -The perception of the inhabitants concerning water quality -Inhabitants’ suggestions to improve the tanks ReferencesMartin, 2007. Drinking water and potential threats to human health in Nunavik: Adaptation Strategies under Climate change conditions, Arctic, 60(2),195-202 Daniel et al. 2020. Drinking water quality at the point of collection. Int. J. Env. Res. Public Health, 17, 2172. Sarkar et al., 2015. Water insecurity in Canadian Indigenous communities: some inconvenient truths, Rur. Rem. Health. 15(4):3354 Bradford, 2016. Drinking water quality in Indigenous communities. Int. J. Circ. Health, 75(1)

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