Causes of unsafe drinking water on Indigenous reserves

Causes of Inadequate Water in First Nations Communities

Poor drinking water on First Nations reserves has many different causes that are all influenced by many different factors.

Marginalization

Indigenous people living on the reserves have substantially poorer quality drinking water than is found in other non-Indigenous communities. To understand the issue, it is crucial to recognize the historical context in which drinking water has become a crisis in so many First Nations communities. Indigenous groups have always been a marginalized group in Canada, since the first Europeans arrived in the country, to right now in the midst of the global pandemic. They have always been mistreated, since time immemorial, in various degrees, ranging from assimilation, getting their land taken away from them and being forced onto reserves, residential schools, poverty, and now the water crisis, that in some communities has been going on for decades.

Poor water quality on these reserves is a longstanding concern with deep roots. The legacy of the settlement and development of the traditional First Nations lands, of the Indigenous people being forced onto the reserves, has in many cases deprived Indigenous peoples of their water rights. Due to the distribution of land, and the location and quality of the reserves they were placed into, they face such great threats to water quality in such a magnitude that most Canadians do not experience. These impacts include pollution, habitat damage, flooding of traditional lands, forced relocations, and lost control of water. And the fact that there are still First Nations groups who still have to drink bottled water because local water sources can no longer be relied upon further proves the gap between these marginalized Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous communities.

Contamination and Water Source

Another reason for poor drinking water quality on reserves is related to the source of the water itself, which has a direct impact on drinking water. While water treatment is designed to make the source water safe to drink, heavily contaminated source water can make this water treatment much more difficult and expensive. Many First Nations groups rely on surface water and groundwater that is under the direct influence of surface water. This means that water quality is directly connected to the watershed and the source of the water. Therefore, if the water source is contaminated, with bacteria or heavy metals, then the drinking water will most likely be impacted as well, especially in communities with no water treatment plants.

Contamination of water sources is a major issue in why drinking water advisories are formed. There can be varying types of contamination, including bacteria and viruses to heavy metals from industrial pollution. Pollution from industries is a huge issue relating to the contamination of these water sources. An example of this is the Alberta Oil Sands. The Alberta Oil Sands are the largest oil deposit in Canada, containing about 10% of the world’s oil reserves. It has one of the leading oil industries in the world, which is a significant part of Canada’s economy.

The oil in the oil sands is bitumen, a black highly viscous mixture of hydrocarbons, and is mixed with sand particles. This makes it especially difficult to mine the oil, which unfortunately means that conventional drilling techniques cannot be used. Therefore, open pit mining and in situ mining are used to remove the oil. This is not a very safe or sustainable way of mining. One main problem with these oil sands is that there are tailing ponds, which are man made lakes used for storing waste water from oil sands mining processes. These toxins can leak into the nearby water sources, harming the communities along them. These communities include many First Nations communities. In these communities, there have been reports of increased cancer rates due to the toxins leaking into their water sources from the factories. This situation occurs with many other factories and Indigenous groups and is negatively impacting their water supplies and their health.

Remote Areas

Many reserves are located in remote areas of Canada. In these remote communities, a lack of infrastructure has undermined construction projects. It is very hard to continue with the construction of pipes and water treatment plants, if there is not infrastructure in the first place. In many, there is a significant lack of roads, which means that these construction projects will be delayed, incomplete, or go unrepaired for great lengths of time.

Regulations and Funding

First Nations reserve lands do not fall under provincial jurisdiction on matters related to water. The First Nation reserve lands fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Therefore, the responsibility of the protection and provision of the water to First Nations falls to the hands of the federal government. Canada does not have national, legally binding standards for water, but merely voluntary drinking water guidelines, which explains a lot of the problems.

Unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, we do not have baseline standards for water quality across the country, which causes a lot of the poor water quality in the First Nations communities to begin with, as there are no set laws, just voluntary guidelines. Provincial and territorial regulations governing safe drinking water and sanitation do not extend to these First Nations reserves. This results in a patchwork of drinking water laws which results in a lot of disparity between provinces, and also leaves the First Nations communities vulnerable to diseases, drinking water advisories, and the blunt consequences from poor water quality. This lack of legal frameworks at the federal level on the drinking water on First Nations reserves, the self governments in the First Nations communities are left with no powers relating to water management. They are still excluded from attempts to assert their rights to water.

Regarding the self governance of the Indigenous communities, since there are no laws regarding their drinking water at the federal level, they may not be placing as much attention on their drinking water. They receive funding from the government, but without set laws to ensure that money goes to fixing water quality, they may use it on other issues occurring in the reserves. This misuse of funding by the Indigenous governments can lead to increasing issues in water quality. Also, without any prior knowledge or help from the government, how are they supposed to know how to manage these systems? In some communities, lack of funding is an important issue, but the Canadian government has been providing funding to Indigenous communities to fix the water quality problem. But without the ability to maintain these systems, how are they supposed to last.

Maintenance of the Systems

The 2019 federal budget acknowledged that where drinking water advisories have been lifted “without sufficient resources to operate and maintain water and wastewater systems, it is possible that new drinking water advisories may be issued in the future.” The federal government is providing funding to build water treatment plants and infrastructure in these reserves. How are these short-term solutions supposed to last if there is no way of maintaining these infrastructures? It does not matter if you provide these communities with funding, you need to ensure that the behaviour continues, you have to make sure that the Indigenous people know how to maintain their systems and be sustainable. That is the fault of the government - they offer band aid solutions to this huge crisis. But what they do not realize is, and I cannot stress this enough, you cannot build water treatment plants and pipes and all this infrastructure, without a reasonable way to ensure that it lasts. Because if you do not, all of that money and effort will go to waste, and most importantly the Indigenous people living in those reserves will go back to the horrid circumstances they were going through in the first place.