5/15/23, 2:04 PM Impacts of unsafe drinking water on Indigenous reserves — The Indigenous Foundation

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Impacts of unsafe
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drinking water on
Indigenous reserves
Written By Sena Yenilmez

Impacts on these Communities

Research suggests that in Indigenous communities, exposure to waterborne parasites

and bacteria that cause illnesses, disorders, and even an increased risk of cancer, are
significantly higher than normal. At any time over the last decade, between 20-30
percent of reserve water systems posed a high risk of producing unsafe drinking
water. An example of a bacteria impacting an Indigenous community was in October
2005. In the Kashechewan reserve in Northern Ontario, elevated levels of Escherichia
coli in the drinking water led to the evacuation of more than 1000 residents of the
Kashechewan reserve. Evacuations like this one are fairly common in areas with
drinking water situations.

These evacuations are extremely consequential on the Indigenous people. They are
forced to move out of their homes, their way of life being disrupted, due to the
government’s inability to provide safe drinking water for them. One fairly recent
evacuation occurred just this October. Hundreds of people were evacuated from a
remote First Nation reserve in northwestern Ontario due to a water crisis. There was

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an oily sheen discovered in the Neskantaga First Nation water reservoir. 175
vulnerable residents were forced to leave the area out of the total population of 460,
headed to Thunder Bay, Ontario. Many Indigenous communities have never known
clean drinking water before. They still drink bottled water till this day, because that is
what their mentality is now, because the experience they are going through is so
traumatic. These contaminants may result from poor wastewater management on
and off reserves, organic material in dirty source water reacting with chemicals meant
to disinfect.

Inequities in the provision of safe water leave communities vulnerable to boil water
advisories, waterborne diseases, stress, and associated health effects. There is evidence
that once affected with a health impact, Indigenous community members are further
burdened by unequal access to health care services to help them cope with water-
borne illness and effects on wellbeing. Health care professionals play a key and central
role in improving the access and quality health care for communities, and yet, many
Indigenous communities are without regular health care workers. Health care
professionals should be aware of these negative water related health effects which
have much to do with access to care. Health care practitioners play a valuable role in
the provision of preventing ongoing water-related health care services by advocating
for better access overall to health care for Indigenous people.

The poor water and sanitation situation in First Nations communities also contributes
to severe housing shortages on the reserves. There is a lot of overcrowding and long
waits for housing. Unfortunately, to solve the housing issue, there have to first be
upgrades to water and wastewater infrastructure on the reserves.

Many Indigenous communities in remote areas have to frequently travel long

distances to obtain clean and safe water. Jonathan Mallet makes an average of five
trips a week from Kenora, Ontario, to Angle Inlet in Northwest Angle 33, his isolated
reserve in the Lake of the Woods, to cart dozens of blue jugs filled with clean water.
The community has to rely on bottled water because of water contamination. It takes
eight hours there and back through the hostile remains where there are no roads,
only the lake. In the winter the path takes him over the ice. One day, Mallet was
travelling alone, delivering water to his community, when his quad flipped him and
had ice clinking to his sled. His foot was pinned under the quad and he was sinking
into the lake. He unpinned his foot, flipped the quad, and made it to land while the
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ice crackled and caved in behind him. Fortunately, he arrived home safely at
midnight. In February 2019, Northwest Angle 33 received $9.7 million for a water
treatment plant as part of the federal government’s commitment to end long-term
drinking water advisories in Indigenous communities by 2021.

In the report published on February 23, 2017, “Self-reported Effects of Water on

Health in First Nations Communities in Saskatchewan, Canada: Results From
Community-Based Participatory Research,” it examines the health effects of unsafe
drinking water on First Nations Communities in Saskatchewan. While examining
eight different communities in the province, many individuals spoke out about their
water related health challenges openly and with concern. The health challenges
presented ranged between issues in individual to community levels, such as
gastrointestinal illnesses, stress, relationship difficulties, and breakdowns in
community functioning. The impacts of unsafe drinking water went beyond physical
effects to issues like ongoing stress and mental illness, economic problems such as
purchasing bottled water, and cultural and spiritual shifts like losing the ability to

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have water ceremonies. In one community, although the water was being treated,
there were extremely high levels of chlorine in the water, resulting in direct and
indirect health impacts.

The Assembly of First Nations, the University of Ottawa and the University of
Montreal released the draft results of a decade long investigation into First Nations
diets and food related exposures to environmental pollutants, First Nations Food,
Nutrition and Environment Study (FNFNES). One of the aspects they studied was
heavy metals and pharmaceutical metabolites in drinking and surface water. These
issues in the contamination of water and food, the FNFNES pointed out, were in part
rooted in the ongoing issues with water and wastewater treatment systems in many
First Nations communities.

Finally, the water crisis impacts the cultural rights of Indigenous people. Water is
sacred to many cultures worldwide. Specifically, for the Indigenous peoples, water is
tied to specific places and involves communities, culture, and identity. Water is also
important on a symbolic level, for security, self-determination, and as an expression
of a preferred lifestyle. Many First nations see water as living, as a form of medicine,
and not being able to drink their water from their own community is distressing to
them. Indigenous women have a special connection to water, where they are the
keepers and the protectors of water, looking after it, performing ceremonies for it,
and praying to the water. When water is contaminated, another aspect of the
Indigenous way of life that is impacted are the ceremonies, customary fishing and
hunting practice, and ways of teaching children and sharing traditional knowledge.
Their way of life as they know it is being impacted, being destroyed.

Citations

Todd Westcott, et al. “Water Contaminants Jeopardize First Nations Food Security.”
Water 

Canada, 8 Nov. 2019, www.watercanada.net/water-contaminants-jeopardize-first-

nations-food-security/.

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Bharadwaj, Lalita, and Lori Bradford. “Indigenous Water Poverty: Impacts Beyond
Physical 

Health.” Northern and Indigenous Health and Healthcare,

openpress.usask.ca/northernhealthcare/chapter/chapter-4-indigenous-water-
poverty-impacts-beyond-physical-health/.

“Freshwater Canada's Dirty Water Secret.” Human Rights Watch, 28 Oct. 2020, 

www.hrw.org/news/2019/04/04/freshwater-canadas-dirty-water-secret.

John Millar and Bob Rae March 29, 2018. “Money Alone Won't Solve the Water Crisis
in 

Indigenous Communities.” Macleans.ca, 29 Mar. 2018, 

www.macleans.ca/opinion/money-alone-wont-solve-the-water-crisis-in-indigenous-
communities/.

Kristahessey, Thejaneg And. “Why Some First Nations Still Don't Have Clean
Drinking Water - 

despite Trudeau's Promise.” Global News, Global News, 3 Oct. 2019, 

globalnews.ca/news/5887716/first-nations-boil-water-advisories/.

Lourenco, Denio. “All Families, Children Evacuated as Neskantaga First Nation Faces
New 

Water Crisis, Chief Says.” CTVNews, CTV News, 25 Oct. 2020,

www.ctvnews.ca/canada/all-families-children-evacuated-as-neskantaga-first-nation-
faces-new-water-crisis-chief-says-1.5160272.

Lukawiecki, Jessica. “Reconciling Promises and Reality: Clean Drinking Water for
First 
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Nations.” David Suzuki Foundation, 2018.

“Make It Safe.” Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2020, 

www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/07/make-it-safe/canadas-obligation-end-first-nations-
water-crisis.

Moore, Ryan. “This Is What Access to Clean Water Looks like for a First Nation in a
Remote 

Corner of Ontario.” Thestar.com, 17 Apr. 2020,

www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/04/17/this-is-what-access-to-clean-water-looks-
like-for-a-first-nation-in-a-remote-corner-of-ontario.html.

“The Right to Water.” Amnesty International Canada, 26 July 2018, 

www.amnesty.ca/our-work/issues/indigenous-peoples/indigenous-peoples-in-
canada/the-right-to-water.

Specht, Markus. “Canada's ‘Quick Fix’ of the First Nations Drinking Water Crisis Is
Not 

Sustainable.” SAIS Perspectives, SAIS Perspectives, 21 Feb. 2020,

www.saisperspectives.com/2020-issue/2020/2/21/canadas-quick-fix-of-the-first-
nations-drinking-water-crisis-is-not-sustainable.

Waldner, Cheryl L, et al. “Self-Reported Effects of Water on Health in First Nations 

Communities in Saskatchewan, Canada: Results From Community-Based

Participatory Research.” Environmental Health Insights, SAGE Publications, 23 Feb.
2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5392108/.

“Water Challenges and Solutions in First Nations Communities.” University of Waterloo,

Water 

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Policy and Governance Group, Dec. 2010, uwaterloo.ca/water-policy-and-

governance-group/sites/ca.water-policy-and-governance-
group/files/uploads/files/vonderporten_and_deloe_2010_1.pdf.

Sena Yenilmez

Sena is one of the co-directors and founders of TIF and is currently in high school. Sena
enjoys reading, journaling, and baking in her free time. She hopes to do what she can in order
to make a difference and spread awareness through TIF.

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