Ontario takes a multifaceted approach to protecting drinking water—we call it the drinking water safety net. It helps to ensure that our water is protected—every step of the way—as it travels from our lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers to the taps in our parks, workplaces and homes.
Together, each part of the safety net works to prevent contamination, detect and solve water-quality problems, enforce laws and regulations, and increase public awareness of the importance of safe, high-quality drinking water.
The eight facets of the drinking water safety net are:
- a source-to-tap focus
- a strong legislative and regulatory framework
- regulated health-based standards
- regular and reliable testing
- swift, strong action on adverse water quality incidents
- mandatory licensing, operator certification and training
- compliance improvement tool kit
- partnership and transparency
More about Ontario’s multifaceted approach to protecting drinking water
Our multifaceted approach is an integrated system of procedures, processes and tools that collectively prevent or reduce the contamination of drinking water, from source to consumer, in order to reduce risks to public health.
Elements of this approach include:
- source protection—keeping our water sources (lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers) as clean as possible, by addressing pollutants that could enter the drinking water treatment system
- treatment to remove or neutralize contaminants
- maintaining our distribution system infrastructures to prevent contamination after treatment
- ongoing monitoring to detect and address system problems that could impair drinking water quality, and verifying the performance of drinking water systems on an ongoing basis
- establishing effective management systems including automatic control, systems, well-developed responses to incidents and effective operating practices.
