A new report documents the Canadian government’s failure to regulate safe water for First Nations communities.

Jun 7, 2016
Rebecca McCray is a staff writer covering social justice. She is based in New York.

Cristal Swain has five daughters, ranging in age from three to 13. For the girls’ entire lives, the family, which is part of the Grassy Narrows First Nations community in Ontario, Canada, has lived without access to clean water.

“Our whole life we have been under a boil-water advisory,” Hazel Sneaky, Swain’s oldest daughter, told Human Rights Watch. “Our fountains at the school are all covered up because we can’t drink from them.”

The Swain family’s predicament is common among Canada’s indigenous families, according to a report published by Human Rights Watch on Tuesday. In spite of living in one of the world’s most water-rich regions, First Nations people living on reserves depend on water sources that are not regulated or protected by Canada’s government. That means the available water is often contaminated, inaccessible, and degraded, leaving communities at risk of cancer, skin infections, and gastrointestinal disorders.

“It’s often indigenous groups and communities of color that miss out on access to safe drinking water, even in countries that have a large amount of natural resources,” Amanda Klasing, the report’s author, told TakePart. “First Nations communities not only lack the same level of access to clean water but also the basic legal infrastructure to ensure that they have safe drinking water on the reserve.”

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