The amount of lead in the water supply of major Canadian cities exceeded safe levels in hundreds of thousands of homes, a major investigation has found.

Axar.az reports citing BBC.

Some areas showed lead levels "similar" to those in the US city of Flint, Michigan, during its 2015 water crisis.

Out of 12,000 samples taken from 2014 to 2018, one third exceeded the national safety guideline of 5 parts per billion (ppb).

Canada has the third-largest per-capita fresh water reserve in the world.

Lead contamination has been linked with low IQ in children, hypertension and heart disease.