Providing Safe Water For First Nation Communities

Project's Mission

Discuss about the Providing Safe Water For First Nation Communities.

Any country having abundant water resource does not mean it is able to provide safe drinking water. This report will suggest ideas on how to solve problems for first nation’s communities present in Canada. A mission statement will be provided from Bow valley club. Facts are based on research done from web-based e-papers, research journals, interview transcripts and videos. This following passage will give a brief idea about the problem. In the year 2005 north Ontario community which is in Canada made headlines because of its poor water quality and unsanitary conditions. This condition forced the evacuation of thousand residents ("Safe Water for First Nations | The Council of Canadians", 2018). Province of Ontario contains 18% of world’s fresh surface water. There is a reason to think because of this Canada will not have any water problems however it is not the case for first nations communities. This problem will be discussed in brief and recommendation will be provided at the end.

Bow valley’s main initiative would be to work closely with the indigenous people of Canada in Ontario province. Mission is to gather information about their culture, know their needs and to provide a set of recommendation to higher-level government officials. Additionally, Bow valley would provide financial assistance to support the mission cause.

The first passage will talk about why people from indigenous communities are suing the federal government of Canada. Four first nation’s citizens in Alberta have successfully filed lawsuit for the inability on Ottawa’s part to provide safe drinking water available on reserves. Problems that have been highlighted by Blood tribe, Ermineskin, Sucker Creek and Tsuu T’ina are floating objects such as mice found in cistern, high rates of hepatitis and cancer. They are accusing the government of sustaining unsafe drinking water and the level of water treatment facilities that are built on the reserves were termed as substandard (Grant, 2016). The tribes have demanded that federal government should upgrade the existing facility and to refund money that was lost due to years of inaction. The reason the claimants are so angry is that they are seeking for parity. They want to see if the water and wastewater infrastructure are in line with infrastructure accorded to non- aboriginal Canadians. In the year 2011, the federal government did a national assessment but skipped some facts.  Few contractors evaluated the situation and found out that out of 97 percent of first nation communities present in Canada, 73 percent of them were at high or medium risks. There were even advisories of not to consume water even if it is boiled which basically means boiling was not enough to remove the contaminants present in the water (Castleden et al., 2017).

Discussion: Project Research

This passage will generally discuss findings based on research from a published literature. It has been determined that wastewater sanitation and providing safe drinking water are critical components of public health (Daley et al., 2015). If there is lack of access to these services, it results in death from diseases that are in most of the cases are preventable. Technologies related to water and wastewater treatment should be tailored to local conditions that suit the environment. Most important factors that are often overlooked are economic contexts, social and cultural contexts. The purpose for which the study was conducted was to understand the perception of residents for the functionality of wastewater and normal water.  Based on the study, future health risks related to water was also identified.  Interviews that were conducted were semi structured.

The third passage will focus on a newspaper article about the problem faced by indigenous communities currently present in Canada. It talks about how health of residents is being affected due to contaminated water and systems that needs urgent maintenance. It was argued that first nation citizens do not have the same privileges that are being granted to the rest of the citizens that do not belong to the first nation community. There are serious repercussions on the prolonged consumption of water for indigenous people living reserves ("Canada: Water Crisis Puts First Nations Families at Risk", 2018). Indigenous people suffer from poverty but also reeling from the effects of prolonged consumption of water, which should be the basic human right for all citizens. Citizens should not be segregated because of their economic conditions. Many diseases such as psoriasis, eczema and other skin problems are direct consequence of using water meant for consumption. First nation families have even gone to the extent of changing their habits including limiting shower time for themselves and children. Caregivers in order to ensure risk elimination among elders and children had to shoulder added responsibility.

The fourth passage will give a brief description of a video that highlights the problems of indigenous people surviving on water on reserves. It talks about the government, which regulates water quality in Canada but does not have any binding regulation for water, which is on the reserves. Even the internal audit of federal government has shown underperformance for water which is on the reserves (Canada's Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk, 2016). Residents have frequently complained about skin problems. Contaminants that were found in water include cancer causing Trihalomethanes, coliform and E.coli.

Newspaper Article on the Problem

Finally, the fifth passage will deliver brief insights from the testimonial obtained from a citizen belonging first nation’s communities in Ontario. Debora, who is a woman lives with her 9-year-old son in Grassy Narrows. She states that it was very difficult for her to manage rash on her son’s skin, which was recurrent. She took him to the clinic and the doctor diagnosed eczema. The ointment that was given did not work and finally she had to take him to the clinic again. Her son had a skin disease, which was rare, and it resists most antibiotics ("Canada: Water Crisis Puts First Nations Families at Risk", 2018). After this incident, she had to avoid using tap water to bath her son. She had to use bottled water and this shows how pathetic the situation was for her. She was not the only one who faced such conditions there were hundreds more.

1. This will mainly address few recommendations to the government of Canada such that by enabling the plan crisis can be averted. The government should develop a plan in collaboration with first nations. The plan should have a fixed period for implementation of the plan, budget allocation should be consistent and there should be commitments towards operation and services (Dupont et al., 2014).
2. INAC or Northern Affairs of Canada should prioritize allocations of capital for communities belonging to first nation ("Make it Safe | Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis", 2018).
3. The government should also engage with communities to know their cultural aspect so that they are able to identify a policy, which is culturally acceptable.
4. The parliament of Canada is also advised to stick to standards prescribed by international bodies and should present a framework based on that.
5. Tribal Council is encouraged to support knowledge sharing among first nation communities so that they are able take preventive actions.
6. In addition, the tribal council should take action so that experience on wastewater treatment should be shared.

Bow valley club will provide a financial assistance that amounts to 20,000 United States Dollar. This will be directly handed over to tribal chief so that maintenance and support for existing treatment systems can start immediately.

Conclusion:

Based on the research, this report concludes the hardships faced by the people belonging to the first nation’s community in Canada. It was established that government has turned a blind eye to the needs of people belonging in the marginalized section. People belonging in that section do not enjoy the same benefits that are entitled to other citizens of Canada. There is a huge need to implement a regulatory framework that would be responsible for implementing a plan that would take care of the needs of these people. Therefore, it can be concluded that by developing a framework, which needs to be adopted by the government problems faced by the communities will disappear.

I want to take this opportunity to inform you about the idea about providing free meals to about forty thousand children belonging to the marginalized sector. I am already aware that you have supported the project -“Lunch for Kids” spanning across two hundred cities in Canada. This fed over 2 million schoolchildren across three thousands schools in Canada.

My colleague and I are very interested in successful implementation of this project. We have thought about the project title too. The project title is “Feed the Kids”.  We will be able to provide free lunches by collaborating with local communities.

There is a strong desire from our end to see that these kids get right kind of nutrition. These kids are from socially and economically weak backgrounds. It is our desire to seek the right kind of parity between these kids and affluent kids.

We would appreciate your honest feedback on this idea. We would be grateful if you can financially assist us on this regard. We are expecting the best co-operation from your side.

References:

Canada: Water Crisis Puts First Nations Families at Risk. (2018). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/07/canada-water-crisis-puts-first-nations-families-risk

Canada's Water Crisis: Indigenous Families at Risk. (2016). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arnqpnm70Ng

Castleden, H., Hart, C., Cunsolo, A., Harper, S., & Martin, D. (2017). Reconciliation and relationality in water research and management in Canada: Implementing indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and methodologies. In Water Policy and Governance in Canada (pp. 69-95). Springer, Cham

Daley, K., Castleden, H., Jamieson, R., Furgal, C., & Ell, L. (2015). Water systems, sanitation, and public health risks in remote communities: Inuit resident perspectives from the Canadian Arctic. Social Science & Medicine, 135, 124-132.

Dupont, D., Waldner, C., Bharadwaj, L., Plummer, R., Carter, B., Cave, K., & Zagozewski, R. (2014). Drinking water management: health risk perceptions and choices in First Nations and non-First Nations communities in Canada. International journal of environmental research and public health, 11(6), 5889-5903.

Grant, K. (2016). Drinking water source water protection plan implementation: barriers and supports for First Nations(Doctoral dissertation).

Make it Safe | Canada’s Obligation to End the First Nations Water Crisis. (2018). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/07/make-it-safe/canadas-obligation-end-first-nations-water-crisis

Minsky, A. (2018). First Nations ‘living in Third World conditions’ as communities endure water advisories. Global News. Retrieved 23 March 2018, from https://globalnews.ca/news/3238948/first-nations-drinking-water-crisis-liberals-promise/

Safe Water for First Nations | The Council of Canadians. (2018). Canadians.org. Retrieved 22 March 2018, from https://canadians.org/fn-water