30 years under longest boil-water advisory in Canada, Neskantaga First Nation pushes for new treatment plant

After 30 Years Under Canada’s Longest Boil Water Warning, Nescontaga Community Pushes for New Water Treatment Plant

The Nescontaga community in northwestern Ontario has been under a boil water warning, the longest in Canada, for more than 30 years. Now leaders of the remote Ojobe community are trying to convince the federal government to fund a new water treatment plant.

“This has been painful for a lot of our people. We shouldn’t have to live like this,” said Nescontaga Chief Chris Munias.

The community’s water treatment plant was built in 1993. The boil water warning was issued by the First Nation and the federal government two years later because the facility tested high levels of chlorine and harmful disinfectant products.

February 1 marked the 30th anniversary of the warning. The Canadian government has said it has spent nearly $30 million since 2017 to upgrade the facility.

The water treatment plant is now producing clean, safe water, but problems with the distribution system are preventing it from reaching homes, Monias said.

While tap water is still flowing, residents are advised to boil it before drinking or using it for brushing teeth, washing their faces and other uses.

The new water treatment plant is estimated to cost $52 million.

During the 2015 federal election campaign, Nescantaga became the setting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise to end all long-term boil water advisories in the country within five years.

The pledge was made in 2016, but the government has failed to meet its deadline.

“What I feel is a lack of political will on the part of the government,” Monias said.

About 350 people live in Nescantaga, 440 kilometres northeast of Tarabay. Many of the community members have settled in the town, where young people are sent to complete their high school education.

According to the Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) website, 33 long-term boil water advisories are in effect in 31 different communities across Canada, mostly in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, while 147 long-term advisories have been lifted since November 2015.

In the case of Nescantaga, Monias describes how there have been numerous temporary solutions over the years that have been costly but have not solved the underlying problem. He said the lack of access to safe drinking water has had a major impact on people’s mental health and has led to skin problems — which the community health director has also mentioned.

A few weeks ago, Munias submitted a project application to the federal government for funding to build a new plant, estimated to cost $52 million.

Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu told CBC News that she supports Nescontaga’s plans to build a new plant.

But with parliament suspended and the Liberal government’s status uncertain, more hurdles could lie ahead.

Clean water not reaching homes

After the federal government provided $8.7 million in 2017 to upgrade the Nescontaga water treatment plant, challenges led to delays and a lawsuit against a contractor.

Problems at the plant led to evacuations in September 2019 and October 2020.

Despite recent upgrades, Munias said the plant’s distribution system is fundamentally flawed and unable to function properly.

The community still relies on federal water shipments, which cost about $6,000 per weekly or biweekly trip.

“The only way to solve this problem is to build a new water treatment plant,” Munias said, “but the government forced the community to upgrade their water plant. But that hasn’t worked.”

The government has plans to fix 12 deficiencies at the Nescantaga water treatment plant, according to Hajdu. The department meets with the community every three months to discuss next steps.

Meanwhile, negotiations to design a new plant with a new water inlet that would provide a cleaner water source and may alleviate some of the community’s problems have been ongoing for the past six months, Hajdu said.

Call for Community-Based Decision-Making

Kerry Black, an assistant professor in the University of Calgary’s Schulich School of Engineering and Canada Research Chair in the university’s Department of Civil Engineering, has been researching community-based solutions to infrastructure challenges, particularly water and sanitation, for years.

The problem with boil-water warnings, he said, is that top-down policies and programs “continue to fail at the community level.”

“We need to look at colonial policies and the ways in which we have forced communities to develop without autonomy,” Black said.

Long-term sustainable financing remains a challenge, Black added, but the most important thing is to make decisions with Indigenous communities, not for them.

All of these challenges are compounded by the inequalities that communities face, from the effects of colonialism to the unequal impacts of climate change.

News source