What can I do to help people without access to clean drinking water? As a non-indigenous person, I have an obligation not only to defend the land and protect the water I have borrowed but to do what I can to alleviate the genocidal water crisis in aboriginal communities within Canada.
I am offering at cost Stefani Water Purifiers and/or filters to any First Nations, Metis or Inuit households or communities. We can offer to import and temporarily store the purifiers, training of community or household members here in Toronto (or elsewhere if we can gather the funds to go) and supply on an ongoing basis replacement parts and filtres.
While what is needed is government action to reverse policies that lead to pollution and underfunding, and that value indigenous lives, implementing water purification can improve individual lives. It's a band-aid, but we use band-aids to help heal wounds. Healthier people can have the energy to fight for real solutions.
What is needed? The plan:
If the Stefani Water Purifier is known to eliminate the contaminants (see *below) in a community's drinking water then...
1. TEST A gallon or more of contaminated water that we will test before and after at a minimum of three labs to ensure that the filtred water is safe.
AND
the monies required to do so
2. The commitment on the part of the household or community to implement the filtres either using the original terra cotta or a homemade two bucket system
AND the financial commitment to place the order
3. We will import the necessary purifiers and parts needed for at least one year. (We order once a year).
4. Representatives of the receiving household or community will arrange transportation of the purifiers the same week as they arrive (We don't have storage!)
5. We will train representatives in the use and maintenance of the water purifiers.
6. The community or household regularly monitors the purified water to ensure it remains safe to drink.
If you know of an individual or community leader who might benefit from this offer, please contact us at Info AT AnarresHealth DOT ca.
At any given time, up to 130 First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities are without safe drinking water coming out of their taps, something most Canadians would find completely unacceptable after even a few days. The reasons come down to pollutions from mining, pulp and paper and hydroelectric industries, buried toxic waste including nuclear waste, and the misplacement, mismanagement, and underfunding of water and waste infrastructure.
Most disturbing of all is the fact that these are not the result of mistakes of a deep, dark colonial past - colonial Canada is poisoning aboriginal communities RIGHT NOW and on an ongoing basis - with the development of the Tar Sands and its pipelines, to the 9.2 billion dollars the Federal government has committed to the Muskrat Falls Dam project in Labrador which now threatens three aboriginal peoples and settlers with deadly flash flooding and methylmercury poisoning.
Tub water in Patricia Paul's house in Potlotek First Nation, N.S. Residents have been dealing with discoloured, dirty water for some time. (CBC) Water in Potlotek First Nation has sand in it and is normally discoloured. (CBC)
Trudeau's progress on drinking water advisories is misleading and the government's approval of the Kinder Morgan pipeline - without Indigenous consent - is further putting drinking water for First Nations at risk.
As of spring 2017, there are still a total of 124 drinking water advisories in effect in First Nations. On top of the 76 long-term advisories, there were 31 short-term advisories in place as of May 1, 2018 and 17 drinking water advisories in B.C.
The Trudeau government categorizing drinking water advisories as “long-term” and “short term” is misleading. Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada states that long-term DWAs are advisories that have been in effect for more than one year. Indigenous Services Canada says short term advisories are “a temporary water quality issue on a specific water system less than a year.” But some of the "short-term" advisories have been lifted and reinstated several times over the years.
For example this 2011 access to information request shows the names of First Nations under drinking water advisory in December 2010. Some of what the Trudeau government now calls “short-term advisories” were listed in this 2010 list including: (the year in the brackets shows the year the advisory was set in the access to information request)
Deer Lake First Nation (2001), Hiawatha (2008), Aroland First Nation (2008) in Ontario
Star Blanket First Nation (2007) in Saskatchewan
Sucker Creek (2010) in Alberta
The Edmonton Journal and CBC reported on the lack of clean water in Sucker Creek First Nation in 2014 and 2016, respectively.
The Trudeau government's funding for water and wastewater in First Nations reserves... still falls short of the annual $889 million called for by the 2011 National Assessment commissioned by the federal government.
The 2017 David Suzuki Foundation and Council of Canadians report titled Glass Half Empty? Year 1 Progress Toward Resolving Drinking Water Advisories in Nine First Nations in Ontario outlines the bold steps the Trudeau government must take to end the drinking water crises in First Nations including increasing funding, implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN-recognized human right to clean drinking water and sanitation as well as working with First Nations to streamline and simplify the process for investments in water infrastructure.
“150 Indigenous Nations in Canada and the US have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion in opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline and all other attempts to allow more tar sands production, including Enbridge’s Line 3 and TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipelines.”
The Trudeau government must take bold action to uphold the human rights to water and sanitation and ensure clean water for all Indigenous nations including respecting Indigenous rights and stopping the Kinder Morgan pipeline.
Read Emma Lui's full blogpost here https://canadians.org/blog/trudeaus-progress-first-nations-water-advisor...
* ~ Test results from various local and international water quality laboratories (INMETRO certified) have certified that Stefani water filters consistently remove and reduce the following impurities and contaminants:
99.9% Bacteria
99.9% Amoeba
99.7% Copper
99.6% Lead
98.5% Chlorine
99.4% Iron
99.4% Zinc
97.0% Bromoform
95.0% Dichlorobromomethane
94.5% Aluminum
93.0% Chloroform
93.0% Dibromochloromethane
92.0% Dieldrin
87.0% Lindane
>50% to <10% Fluoride, municipally added water
... Resulting in naturally fresh and a 100% healthy water.
If you know of an individual or community leader who might benefit from this offer, please contact us at Info AT AnarresHealth DOT ca.