Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
An outbreak of E. coli infections at several Calgary daycares has infected more than 260 people, most of them children. It's not the first major outbreak of the food-borne illness, which is caused by bacteria that live in the feces of animals and is carried to humans through undercooked meat, unpasteurized food or contaminated water. The E. coli variant known as 0157 is often the most virulent and can cause hemolytic uremic syndrome, which affects the kidneys and the ability of blood to clot.
I am completely confused about why our government cannot provide clean water for the Indigenous communities in the north and elsewhere in Canada. This necessary resource is monitored diligently throughout our country so why can we not provide these families with purification equipment and the proper training to maintain and repair the systems as required. This seems like a small service that can be easily provided to our Indigenous communities and there appears to be zero reason why our stagnant peace-time military engineers cannot provide a viable solution to this issue.
More than two decades after improperly treated water contaminated with bacteria from cattle manure killed seven people and sickened thousands in Walkerton, Canada’s worst-ever outbreak of E. coli contamination never fades for municipal officials responsible for supplying clean safe water. Town of Saugeen Shores councillors approved the final Environmental Study Report for the Southampton Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) Class Environment Assessment (EA) at their April 25 meeting. The need to increase capacity at the plant to handle existing flows, allow for existing non-serviced areas to be serviced, plus future growth for the next 30 years led to the EA and a preferred option that was presented by Ainsley Group consultant Preya Balgobin during a virtual meeting April 25.
It’s hard to think of Walkerton, Ont. without thinking about drinking water. The Bruce County community made international headlines when seven people were killed and thousands fell ill after drinking the town’s E. coli tainted water in May 2000. In the wake of that tragedy, the Walkerton Clean Water Centre (WCWC) was built in 2004 to help change the town’s image from one of infamy to excellence, by providing world-class training and research to drinking water operators across the province.
‘Water sustains us, flows between us, within us, and replenishes us. Water is the giver of all life, and, without clean water, all life will perish.’—Assembly of First Nations “No human being, no animal or plant, can live without its water,” says Dawn Martin-Hill, co-founder of the Indigenous Studies program at Hamilton’s McMaster University. For centuries, the Unist’ot’en people have called Wet’suwet’en territory in British Columbia home. Their way of life is such that they can drink straight from the pristine Morice River (Wedzin Kwah) that flows through their land. Last year, construction began on the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline, posing a direct threat to the Morice. “We call it sweet water,” said Martin-Hill. “We had that everywhere. We had it here in Ontario.” “You know it when you’re drinking it. I’d rather have sweet water over running water.”
“They cut corners every day, every day,” said Justin Gee, vice-president of First Nations Engineering Services Ltd. Gee said he encountered these recurring problems while overseeing the work of a construction firm, Kingdom Construction Limited (KCL), building a water treatment plant 10 years ago in Wasauksing First Nation, along the eastern shore of Georgian Bay, about 250 kilometres north of Toronto. “You have to be on them every step of the way,” said Gee, who was the contract administrator on the project. “You can’t leave them on their own.”
ONEIDA NATION OF THE THAMES — Jennifer George’s home sits on a gravel road that separates this Indigenous community near London, Ont., from the neighbouring township of Southwold. On George’s side of the road, virtually no one trusts the drinking water that flows from the Thames River to their homes. Many have the same 18-litre blue jugs that line the floor of George’s kitchen, ubiquitous sources of water for drinking and cooking.
His legs had wasted away. Numbness in his fingers made it impossible for him to write or button a shirt; he opened bottles of painkillers with his mouth. He was losing sight in his right eye; the hearing in one ear was already gone. He’d leave his home only every two weeks, strapped on a gurney to be transported to the Queensway Health Centre for an intravenous immunoglobulin treatment. He went for the last time in late April.
