Drinking Water Consumption Patterns: An Exploration of Risk Perception and Governance in Two First Nations Communities

Neal Spicer, Brenda Parlee, Molly Chisaakay and Doug Lamalice
Additional contact information
Neal Spicer: Resources Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
Brenda Parlee: Resources Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
Molly Chisaakay: Resources Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada
Doug Lamalice: Resources Economics and Environmental Sociology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2R3, Canada

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-21

Abstract: Many Indigenous communities across Canada suffer from the lack of access to clean drinking water; ensuring individuals and communities have safe water to drink either from their home or from their local environment requires the consideration of multiple factors including individual risk perception. In collaboration with local leaders, semi-structured interviews ( n = 99) were conducted over a two-year period in the Dene Tha’ First Nation and Kátł’odeeche First Nation to unpack the issue of risk perception and its meaning to local community members. These local metrics of risk perception including smell, taste, safety, health fears and level of concern were then used to explore patterns in other data on drinking water consumption patterns and bottled water use. The results are consistent with previous research related to water insecurity and indicate that both communities consume more bottled water than the average Canadian. Results also varied by jurisdiction; those in Alberta indicated much higher levels of concern and a greater degree of bottled water consumption.

Keywords: indigenous; water security; drinking water; bottled water (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6851/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/6851/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:6851-:d:403044

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().