Solutions are slow to come for water crisis plaguing Quebec’s Nunavik region

PUVIRNITUQ — Most Quebecers have only to twist a tap to get a seemingly endless source of clean water. The reality is completely different in the northern region of Nunavik, where the water supply system faces a host of problems, from bad weather to outdated equipment and labour shortages.

Some would be inclined to blame a lack of political will, but solutions aren’t easy to implement.

Water shortages are common north of the 55th parallel. In 13 of the 14 villages, there is no aqueduct and no sewer, partly due to permafrost.

The west coast, along the Hudson Bay, is more problematic than the Ungava Bay side to the east. Weather events are more frequent and more violent — something that is expected to worsen due to climate change, according to Hossein Shafeghati, the municipal public works director for the Kativik regional government.

In most places, water distribution begins with a pumping station that pumps water from a river. Next, it’s treated at a treatment station before being loaded onto tanker trucks and deposited into individual reservoirs at each home. If all goes well, the trucks come by at least once a day.

Wastewater is also collected by truck, and deposited into natural purification basins. Each village has their own system to notify the truck drivers when a wastewater reservoir is full and needs to be emptied.

Some facilities that are considered essential are connected right to the village’s treatment station via a pipe. These include the hospital in Puvirnituq, which otherwise would take at least five trucks a day to supply, according to Peter Napartuk, a city manager.

Despite the direct link, the hospital is still frequently short of water due to bad weather or mechanical breakdowns.

A lack of access to water is a story that is repeated over and over, year after year. 2022 was particularly tough, with 13 shortages, according to partial data obtained from the Nunavik Regional Board of Health and Social services through an access to information request.

“I would say it happens every year, but under different circumstances, like lack of drivers or lack of equipment, or frozen pipes” said Inukjuak Mayor Bobby Epoo. “It can be one of those three.”

This past spring, Puvirnituq faced an unprecedented water crisis after a water main froze in a March blizzard, leaving the town without consistent water deliveries for months. The municipal council declared a state of emergency after a fire broke out in a home, without enough water to put it out.

“The water crisis, the state of emergency, that was the worst we had,” said Napartuk, who was left exhausted by the crisis.

He said the underground pipe that carries water from the pumping station freezes regularly. He says the pipe, and all the village’s equipment, dates from the 1990s. “It’s very old equipment, so that’s why (in the last) 10 years we started getting more frozen pipes,” he said.

Epoo says his community’s water infrastructure is also outdated, and fears a major disruption is on the horizon. “We have never changed the pipes, or replaced them,” he said, adding that other villages are in the same position.

A shortage of qualified workers presents another obstacle, according to Shafeghati. “Sometimes in one village you have this exceptional person who has much more experience, and gets into the position of managing the village, and they can perform better,” he said. “In some villages, unfortunately, that’s lacking, and that capacity must gradually be built.”

He said municipal management will have to become “generational knowledge,” noting that many villages have only been urbanized for one or two generations. “They’ve been doing great catching up, but it takes time.”

The Quebec minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit wants to be careful when discussing solutions, not wanting to impose a southern vision on Inuit communities.

“I’m putting myself in the place of the people who live in these communities, and I understand the frustration,” Ian Lafrenière said. “…But we have to understand the level of responsibility with the Inuit, with whom we have an agreement of respect.”

He says the province respects and works with the Kativik Regional Government as well as Makivik Corporation, which represents Inuit.

He said the province is looking at some solutions, including an offer to create programs to train workers to maintain vehicles or even water plants. Communities with a mechanic tend to fare better than those without one, he said, “because they aren’t obliged to wait for a mechanic to leave from another village or the south of Quebec to go north when there’s a serious break.”

Since the early 2000s, several villages have been calling for financing to install underground pipes where the ground allows it. But as the years go by, the cost of this infrastructure has exploded.

Shafeghati estimates it would take about $2 billion to make the necessary upgrades to Nunavik’s pipe system.

In 2023, the government of Quebec signed an agreement with the Kativik Regional Government that included $163 million over five years to help improve municipal and road infrastructure and acquire and repair equipment in northern villages.

While the contribution has helped, it’s “nowhere near what the needs are,” he said. In Puvirnituq alone, he estimates it will take $150 million just to improve the risk resilience of the current trucking system.

Two upcoming reports are expected to shed light on Nunavik’s water system. One is expected to establish what’s needed to resolve Purvirnituq’s water problems and prevent another crisis.

In the longer term, the Société du Plan Nord, which helps manage the Quebec government’s northern action plan, will publish a report on the feasibility of creating an underground pipe system in Nunavik.

Shafeghati says such a system, if built and managed properly, could help solve the problem. However, it could also mean more frozen pipes, “so there are nuances to take into account,” he said. Nevertheless, he wouldn’t hesitate to move forward with the work if the funds became available.

Lafrenière, for his part, says he is wary of miracle solutions, and wants to be open to other potential paths forward. “For example, wouldn’t it be appropriate to have wells drilled for schools and hospitals to provide them with direct water without having to use a truck?” he said, promising that the government will move forward with solutions in collaboration with the Inuit communities.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2025.

Katrine Desautels received the support of the Michener Foundation, which awarded her a Michener-Deacon Investigative Journalism fellowship in 2025 to report the impact of the lack of access to water in Nunavik’s Indigenous communities. This article is the first in a series of four reports.

Katrine Desautels, The Canadian Press