12/31/2022 0 Comments Alexandra shimo![]() ![]() This legal ambiguity has allowed Nestlé to move in and extract precious water on expired permits for next to nothing. And, according to the Canadian constitution, the federal government has a “duty to accommodate and consult” First Nations and to make sure other parties do the same when extracting any natural resource, including water, from indigenous land. According to that act, the provinces have the right to sell their water to whomever they want, including companies like Nestlé.īut water is also supposed to be regulated by the federal government, which is responsible for the natural environment and Canada’s waterways. In theory, the provinces have owned the water since 1930, when the federal government delegated ownership with the Natural Resources Transfer Act. If anything, their legality is finally being taken seriously, thanks to a shift in the national political climate toward greater recognition of indigenous rights, including several wins in the supreme and lower courts.īut the question of who owns Canadian water is as murky as the water on many First Nations lands. No one disputes the existence or legality of the Haldiman or Nanfan treaties. “It’s the indigenous resources they are taking. “Nestlé are taking out water for free, so why don’t they dispense it to people?” Sault said. ![]() She worries about E coli and other bacteria. There is probably sewage contamination from her neighbours’ septic beds, she said. She paid several thousand dollars for her house to be connected to a nearby well – then found the water too polluted to drink. Like the Thomases, she lacks drinking water in her home. Many are outraged at Nestlé’s practices, including JD Sault, a self-employed mother of two. The land’s legacy may be 300 years old, but for Six Nations residents, it is alive and present. Later, Ontario broke the treaty, reducing it to the current 194 sq km. The Six Nations – Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora – sided with the British during the American revolution as a reward they were given an area of approximately 3,845 sq km around the Grand River. Nestlé pumps springwater from the nearby Erin well, which sits on a tract of land given to the Six Nations under the 1701 Nanfan Treaty and the 1784 Haldimand Tract, said Lonny Bomberry, Six Nations lands and resources director. Photograph: Jennifer Roberts/The Guardian Iokarenhtha Thomas holds her daughter Waehsa Thomas and the water she needs to bring into her home. “Why do white people live with water and we don’t?” said Dawn Martin-Hill, a Six Nations local and professor of indigenous studies at McMaster University. The lack of water has been linked to health issues in indigenous communities including hepatitis A, gastroenteritis, giardia lamblia (“beaver fever”), scabies, ringworm and acne. ![]() But this may underestimate the size of the problem, since some indigenous communities, such as Six Nations, have a functional water plant but no workable plumbing. There are currently 50 indigenous communities with long-term boil water advisories, which means an estimated 63,000 people haven’t had drinkable water for at least a year – and some for decades. The Six Nations are not the only First Nations community in Canada with a water crisis. Others have water in their taps, but it is too polluted to drink. Some, like the Thomas home, have no water at all. Ninety-one percent of the homes in this community aren’t connected to the water treatment plant, says Michael Montour, director of public works for Six Nations. #Alexandra shimo skin#“It made me feel like a bad mother to know that he had all these skin issues from washing with water.” That’s just the reality of living on reserve. She would have continued had it not been for her son’s rashes, later diagnosed as impetigo, which she believes came from bacteria on the roof’s shingles. You grow up being treated unfairly.”Įach container of the store-bought bottled water weighs more than 40lb, so a little over a year ago, Thomas, a slight, willowy woman, began supplementing them with rainwater collected from her rooftop gutters. But that’s just the reality of living on reserve. “Because our people don’t have running water. “When I start to compare my life to someone who isn’t living on reserve, I start feeling angry at the government,” she said. “When my husband isn’t here, it makes it difficult to do the dishes or anything because I don’t have the strength to carry all the jugs of water,” Thomas said. Ken Greene boils water in his home at the Six Nations reserve in Ontario. ![]()
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