More than 1,700 boil-water advisories are in effect in communities across the country, according to a new investigative report by the Canadian Medical Association.

A boil-water advisory means that water is contaminated and unfit to drink without boiling. Often, the report says, a community's chlorination or disinfection systems fail to work, leading to advisories.

Although boil-water advisories are often associated with native communities, 93 First Nations had advisories in place as of Feb. 29, 2008, while 1,766 advisories outside of these communities were in place in Canada at the end of the following month, the report said.

"Advisories are intended to be a precautionary measure in the public health tool kit, but given that some have been in place for at least five years, they are apparently being used as a Band-Aid substitute for treatment," write the authors in the report, published online in the association's journal April 7.

The boil-water advisories are mainly in Ontario, which has 679, B.C., at 530, and Newfoundland, with 228. There were no advisories reported in P.E.I, Nunavut or the Yukon.

Ninety people in Canada die and another 90,000 get sick from drinking contaminated water each year, the report said.

The Council of Canadians and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities want the federal government to develop an action plan in co-operation with the provinces and territories to ensure clean drinking water is a priority.

"We're in favour of upping the quality of water and ensuring that it meets a certain standard right across the country," said Gord Steeves, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, in the report.

"We're very concerned about the amounts of negative effluents going into water systems and finding their way into potable water systems, as well."

Canada does not have national drinking water quality standards, something clean-water advocates want changed. Maude Barlow, chair of the Council of Canadians, wants to see the federal Water Act updated.

"We do not take care of our water. We need legislative and regulatory protection," she said in the report.