'Boil, boil, toil and trouble': The trouble with boil water advisories in British Columbia

Clean, safe and reliable drinking water is a fundamental human right, but not everyone is continually supplied drinking water of such quality. In most countries, boil water advisories and other forms of public notifications of drinking water quality are meant as temporary, precautionary measures to protect the public from possible waterborne illnesses. The number of advisories currently in place in Canada is in the thousands, and many of these have been ongoing from months to years. Attention to boil water advisories is warranted, especially since they may be used as “band-aid” substitutes for action. In this study, twenty short-term and long-term boil water advisories, in the province of British Columbia, were randomly selected for investigation. Representatives from each of the three key groups involved and affected by water governance - government officials, water purveyors and the public - were interviewed about the selected advisories. Both government officials and water purveyors were questioned on how the decision to issue the advisory was made, how the advisory was communicated to the public and any corrective actions taken since. Randomly selected members of the public were interviewed to determine whether they were aware of the advisory, understood its message and were complying with the recommended risk reduction measures. The results of the study provide insight on the current state of the problem with boil water advisories in British Columbia and will be used to construct a toolkit for public health professionals involved in water governance.