Canada blasted for unsafe water on reserves

Human Rights Watch found E. coli, other pollutants in untreated First Nations water

One of the world’s leading human rights groups has turned its focus on the consequences of the decades-old problem of contaminated water in indigenous communities throughout Ontario.

From July 2015 to April 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) conducted research in 99 homes located in Ontario First Nations, examining water and sanitation surveys in Batchewana, Grassy Narrows, Shoal Lake 40, Neskantaga and Six Nations of Grand River. They found children suffering with skin disorders, mothers who spend hours a day disinfecting bottles to feed their babies, children and adults skipping baths and the presence of E.coli and other pollutants in untreated water.

There are unsafe water advisories for 133 water systems — 89 in First Nations communities across Canada, according to their 92-page report, “Make it Safe: Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis,” released on Tuesday.

The global rights group was surprised that Canada — one of the wealthiest, clean-water rich countries — was falling behind in its safe water and sanitation obligations. Instead, HRW found a system with two different standards — the government regulates water quality for offreserve communities, but there are no binding regulations for water on First Nations reserves.

“It is surprising how much government auditing there has been on the issue and there have been many reports written,” said Amanda Klasing, HRW’s senior researcher in women’s rights, based in Washington, D.C.

Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day called the lack of clean water “discriminatory and unacceptable” in 2016.

“One of the most glaring gaps that exist in Canada today is that the majority has access to clean, safe water while First Nations particularly across the north have to live with ‘Drinking Water and Do Not Consume’ advisories daily, and in some communities it’s been well over 20 years,” Day said. “When a country like ours has the capability to respond overnight, as it did with the water crisis in the municipality of Walkerton, why is there a continued water crisis taking place in our communities?”

First Nations communities are plagued with faulty or substandard water and sanitation infrastructure, erratic funding and decades of promises to fix things but little delivery, Klasing added.

“The lack of a regulatory regime is indicative to a different approach to these communities to begin with,” Klasing said, pointing to the complicated web of federal authorities, provincial laws and a lack of consultation regarding commercial activities impacting traditional territories and waters. The HRW wants to know why Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), failed to spend funds over five recent fiscal years and sent more than $1 billion in funds back to the Treasury Board as “surplus” when it could have been used to clean up the water, the report said.

Ontario has a disproportionate number of First Nations with dirty water. Contaminants on reserves include Escherichia coli (E.coli), cancer-causing trihalomethanes and uranium. However, some of these contaminants can be naturally occurring and in some cases it results from poor waste water management on and off reserves, the report said.

Kasling, who visited the communities in the report, said the most troubling observation was of the children and elders with unexplained, red and raw-looking skin rashes. The HRW has a number of recommendations, including Canada adopting an independent indigenous water commission authority to monitor and evaluate water policies and that Health Canada provides greater support for monitoring private household drinking water.