[IPSM] CTV: Ont. reserve decries First Nations water crisis

[Jaggi Singh]

Ont. reserve decries First Nations water crisis

Community officials say a completely new water system is needed.

Daisy Wesley says the water has caused her son's cuts and scrapes to become 
infected, leaving permanent scars.
CTV.ca News Staff
Updated: Fri. Oct. 21 2005 11:38 PM ET

The residents of a First Nations Community on the James Bay Coast say they're 
experiencing a water crisis far worse than Walkerton, but Ottawa is ignoring 
them.

The northern Ontario Kashechewan First Nation is in a state of emergency.

The fly-in community about 450 kilometres north of Timmins, Ont., has been 
under a Health Canada boil water advisory for more than two years. Now, with a 
broken sewage levee and a water plant held together with rope and a plank of 
wood, its water supply is contaminated with E. coli.

The situation flared up last week, when federal officials warned of the 
potentially deadly bacteria in water flowing through the taps of the 
community's 1,900 residents. E. coli can make people ill, and even prove deadly 
for young children, the elderly and those already sick.
John Wesley is just one of the residents tired of broken promises to make the 
water fit to drink.

"I've been sick for a couple of days now because i drank that water, even 
though they said it's clean," Wesley told CTV News at a community protest.
But beyond the perils of drinking water and the worries it presents to those 
washing dishes or brushing teeth, Daisy Wesley says it has caused her son's 
cuts and scrapes to become infected, leaving permanent scars.
Community officials say a completely new water system is needed.
The existing water treatment plant, was built a decade ago just 135 metres 
downstream from the release point of a sewage lagoon. That means contaminants 
flow right past the pipe that directs water to be treated for drinking.

Even though Indian Affairs -- which funded the plant initially -- spent 
$500,000 to upgrade the facility last year, the intake pipe wasn't moved.
Since last April, Indian Affairs has spent more than $250,000 flying bottled 
water into Kashechewan.

A federal study released in 1995 concluded that approximately 25 per cent of 
water systems on reserves posed a potential health and safety risk. In 2001, 
another study found three-quarters of the systems tested posed a safety risk to 
the drinking water.

The Auditor-General's report estimated the cost of replacing the water systems 
at $1.4-billion.

Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott visited Kashechewan to assess the situation 
this week.