Helping communities that depend on well water increase their resilience to climate change

About 46% of all people in Nova Scotia depend on private wells for their drinking water. To monitor the water from these wells continuously and prepare communities to respond to the related challenges that may arise, a broad, community-wide approach is needed. A Nova Scotia Community College (NSCC) research team is now working with local partners to implement such an approach.

To learn more about this project, we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Etienne Mfoumou, principal investigator at NSCC’s Engineered Technologies Applied Research Lab. Dr. Mfoumou talked about the advantages of a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to applied research and the benefits that this project will provide to Nova Scotia communities by increasing their resilience in dealing with well-water problems caused by climate change.

Dr. Mfoumou, what made you want to develop solutions for ensuring access to drinking water?

My first field of study was engineering, but I also spent six months in a biology lab where I Iearned how to work with living cells. By observing their behaviour every day, I acquired knowledge in a field different from my own and was able to draw connections between engineering and biology. I had the same experience in several other fields in which my engineering background proved useful. I am now putting what I have learned into practice in my job at Nova Scotia Community College, where we apply integrated approaches to solve problems faced by communities and the private sector.

My laboratory’s mission is to help communities and the private sector find solutions to the problems that they face. I had never thought that I would specialize in water-related problems, but I let myself be guided by the research that was being done and the results that it was producing, one thing led to another, and here I am.

The project that you’re working on now deals with managing well-water resources in the context of climate change. What effects does climate change have on well water?

In Nova Scotia, the effects are substantial. Climate change is contributing to several phenomena that can make water unfit for consumption or irrigation.

One of the first effects that have been observed is a decrease in the amount of water available. In Nova Scotia, climate change is causing increasingly frequent and severe droughts, chiefly in the southwestern part of the province. The decline in precipitation and the prolonged periods of drought reduce groundwater recharge, which lowers water levels in wells. Community residents must therefore find other sources of water; this is a growing concern in rural areas.

Climate change also increases the risks of water contamination. When groundwater levels fall, the concentrations of well-water contaminants, such as bacteria, nitrates and heavy metals, tend to rise. Conversely, during periods of heavy precipitation, surface water may infiltrate into wells, bringing with it contaminants from pesticides and wastewater.

Another problem that Nova Scotia faces, because of its geographic location, is saltwater infiltration onto land. This problem occurs in coastal and low-lying areas of the province, such as along the Bay of Fundy and the shores of the Atlantic. Rising sea levels cause salt water to intrude onto the land, where it may contaminate freshwater aquifers. The pressure exerted by this seawater also drives contaminants from the soil into wells. In Nova Scotia, the combination of rising sea levels and overuse of groundwater aggravates this problem.

Thus climate change poses some serious challenges for sustainable management of well water in Nova Scotia, and effective solutions are needed.

You are working with a great many partners on this project. How do these partnerships benefit your research, and how does your research benefit your partners? 

In applied research, our role is not to offer ready-made solutions, but rather to support our partners in developing effective ways of meeting their challenges. Our private-sector and community partners often have a better understanding of the problems that they are trying to solve than we do. Their active participation in the research process is therefore essential if the solutions developed are going to meet their needs effectively.

In developing and testing the water-monitoring system, we work with SimplyCast, a Nova Scotia company that specializes in computer-based communication solutions, as well as with the Nova Scotia geological service. Their participation is helping us to design a system that not only performs well technically but is also relevant and directly applicable to real life.

In return, this collaboration gives our partners access to cutting-edge tools that let them assess risk and make decisions based on reliable data while strengthening their capacity to respond to water-related challenges in real time.

This collaboration is also a learning experience for us. It enhances our understanding of the issues that our partners face and helps us to improve the solutions that we offer them, thus yielding tangible benefits to all concerned.

You have received funding in the past from other NSERC and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) programs. To what extent is the grant from the College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF) helping NSCC to continue developing the water-monitoring system and increasing its ability to integrate the results of all the research being done?

In 2018, we began our first project, whose goal was to improve the quality of the water in private wells in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. This project revealed a pressing need to sensitize the public and municipal officials to the problems related to drinking water. This work led to a much larger project in 2020, in which we attempted to evaluate water resilience in southwestern Nova Scotia, an area that has been repeatedly hit with major droughts.

The first research projects that we completed with NSERC and SSHRC funding let us lay strong foundations, while in the current project, made possible by CCSIF funding, we are applying the results of this past research. By combining all of the technical, environmental and social data that we have gathered previously, we are developing a solution that will have a concrete impact on the province as a whole. This solution represents an advance in water-monitoring technology and will also let us disseminate knowledge about water and water management to Nova Scotia communities.

The CCSIF’s support also lets us expand our partnerships by including other stakeholders such as municipal managers and response teams. The contributions from these partners will let us ensure that the monitoring system remains flexible and adapted to communities’ needs.

What impact will this project have on Nova Scotia’s communities and their ability to solve problems related to well water?

Thanks to the development of the system and their participation in the project, Nova Scotia communities will have access to real-time data on the quality and quantity of the water in their wells and will be able to use the basic knowledge that they acquire to interpret the results of water-quality tests.

This project will enable well owners to acquire knowledge that will help them to take proactive steps to maintain the quality of their well water, such as cleaning their wells. Currently, owners of wells in Nova Scotia are solely responsible for maintaining them, so they must be able to solve certain basic problems on their own.  

At the municipal level, officials can implement solutions that benefit public health. Data collection will let them improve their risk assessment and decision-making and help them to develop policies and response plans that are suited to local conditions. All of these things will increase communities’ resilience in dealing with the problems that they face.

This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

About Etienne Mfoumou

Etienne Mfoumou is director of the Engineered Technologies Applied Research Lab at Nova Scotia Community College. Mfoumou and his team offer unique solutions developed through interdisciplinary research that combines engineering, biology and innovation in several technology-based sectors. This laboratory helps small and medium-sized businesses in Nova Scotia to meet their specific needs and improve their products and services. 

Up next