Nova Scotia won’t be offering bottled water to municipalities this year

Bottled water in row

During last year’s persistent drought, the Nova Scotia government reimbursed municipalities for bottled water, but they won’t be doing it again this summer.

The Department of Emergency Management says the bottled water program was a one-time event.

“In 2025, the Province of Nova Scotia distributed more than $1,093,000 in funding on a bottled water reimbursement program for municipalities that supplied water to residents whose wells had gone dry,” said Sarah Sibley, communications advisor with the department, in an email.

“Municipalities were reimbursed for the purchases so while we don’t know the total number of bottles, there were 21 municipalities who submitted claims for this program.”

Sibley said Nova Scotia experienced droughts in 2016, 2018, 2022 and 2025, so the government’s response plan needs to shift from one of emergency to one of preparedness.

“The Department of Municipal Affairs has created a Drought Working Group to address the complexities of drought,” Sibley said.

The dry conditions last summer and fall also prompted the Halifax Regional Municipality to launch a water distribution program in August. In three months they distributed more than 458,000 litres of water to residents.

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