Meantime, the city turned to the Flint River as its source.
It took a few years before the people of Flint could once again count on that.
For the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, which straddles the Manitoba-Ontario boundary, it’s been 20 years.
That is our national shame.
While some headway has been made, there are still too many Indigenous communities that can’t tap into the same safe resources that the rest of us can.
Right now, 62 long-term advisories (ones in place for more than a year) remain outstanding.
There are long-term, structural problems with the water treatment systems in many Indigenous communities that have not been addressed.
It’s more difficult to rely on as a reason when you’re talking about communities that haven’t had access to safe drinking water for 25 years.
And while that situation is particularly absurd, there are many Indigenous people that haven’t had good, reliable water to consume for several years.
Which leads to the question: How much does racism play in our water crisis in Canada?