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.
A group of researchers at a Nova Scotia university, in partnership with international colleagues, have developed a test to rapidly detect bacteria contamination in drinking water by using gold nanoparticles, antibiotics and light. The technology devised by St. Francis Xavier University researchers is simpler and faster than other laboratory methods of finding bacteria in water, some of which take up to 18 hours and involve many more steps.
After two decades of relying on bottled water, members of a B.C. First Nation west of Quesnel will soon be able to drink water directly from the taps in their homes. An approximate $600,000 packaged water treatment system is anticipated to be installed at the Lhoosk’uz Dené Nation this fall. “This has been an important project that chief and council have been pushing for,” said band manager Brenda Thomas. “We’re all excited. For the past 20 years, we’ve never had potable water.”
The true toll of the water crisis in First Nations communities across Canada can’t be known because the government has failed to track and study water-related illnesses. That stands in the way of tackling the problem, experts told the Institute for Investigative Journalism as part of “Clean Water, Broken Promises,” a year-long investigation conducted in collaboration with universities across the country and a consortium of media outlets including The Tyee. Some critics charge the “black hole” of information is intentional because it allows authorities to duck responsibility. A disproportionate number of illnesses that occur as a result of contaminated drinking water are in First Nations communities with substandard water systems, but the data needed to map the reality are missing.
The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation is expanding its water system to deliver clean drinking water to hundreds of residents who have been grappling for more than a decade with seven drinking water advisories. The Bay of Quinte is on Lake Ontario and the First Nation is not remote or isolated. It’s just off Ontario’s Highway 401, between Toronto and Montreal. Chief R. Donald Maracle said his community has suffered from a lack of safe water since 2008, due to fecal, bacterial and algae contaminations. A regional drought made many groundwater wells go completely dry in 2017.
