Ashley Brandson Martha Troian APTN News While the Liberal government says progress has been made on a campaign pledge to end long term drinking water advisories in First Nations communities, some of those communities say they’ve since lost count of how many times they’ve been under short term advisories.
The latest First Nation community to have its long-term drinking water advisory lifted is Weenusk First Nation in Ontario as of late last year.
Shamattawa First Nation in Manitoba is just one community that has been under a short-term advisory since December 6, 2018, affecting up to 5000 people.
“It’s a boil water advisory, so we can’t drink right from the tap, we have to boil our water just like many other communities in the north,” said Chief Eric Redhead.
It’s just unacceptable to live that way.” Redhead says Shamattawa First Nation came off a long-term drinking water advisory approximately two years ago, but it has since been placed under a string of short-term drinking water advisories.
Redhead said he lost count how many times the community has been on a drinking water advisory since 2016.
David Trout, the community’s water treatment plant operator agrees with Redhead.
A spokesperson with the department says some communities will face recurrent short term advisories but continues to support “First Nations-led approaches to addressing new and ongoing drinking water advisories.” Unclear whether drinking water advisories data collected by government While Indigenous Services displays the number of water-related advisories on its website, it’s difficult to determine if that is the whole picture.
When asked whether or not the department collects data on water and wastewater management, including short-term and long-term drinking water advisories, APTN News was informed repeatedly First Nation communities are owners and operators of this infrastructure, including its own data and that it is up to the community to share this information with the department.
APTN asked the community of Shamattawa if they are collecting their own data and whether OCAP is being implemented.