A state of emergency was declared last week in Iqaluit, following test results that confirmed the presence of fuel in the city’s water supply. Iqaluit’s residents, nearly 60% of whom identify as Indigenous, have been advised to avoid tap water until further notice. In an interview with CTV News, Mayor Kenny Bell attributed the crisis to the city’s deteriorating infrastructure, noting that Iqaluit’s water reservoirs and water treatment facilities are too small for its population and the city’s piping needs repair.
Now, Iqaluit joins the ranks of the over 100 Indigenous communities and reserves across Canada that do not have access to clean drinking water. Unsanitary conditions have had life-threatening consequences for Native populations; improper wastewater treatment and microbial or chemical contamination within their communities have been linked to gastrointestinal illnesses, skin diseases, and birth defects.
Disproportionately, these conditions affect women and girls since they are often responsible for household tasks requiring prolonged contact with water: such as laundry, cooking, and bathing children. Women are also uniquely vulnerable to waterborne infections associated with reproduction and menstruation. Despite the excessive dangers they face, Indigenous women have been largely absent from federal legislation surrounding water sanitation; neither the Safe Drinking Water for First Nations Act nor the Canada Water Act reference women’s health.
Furthermore, lack of access to clean drinking water has a profound effect on the mental health of Indigenous women, who are left to conclude that the federal government cares little about their health and quality of life. One 2012 study established a causal link between water insecurity and adverse mental health outcomes, attributing symptoms of emotional distress, depression, and anxiety to poor water sanitation. The study’s authors found that women and girls were particularly likely to experience feelings of shame, guilt, and humiliation in the context of water deprivation. Poor mental health in Indigenous communities has serious consequences for Indigenous women, who are three times more likely than other women to experience intimate partner violence. The inability to complete domestic tasks compounds this issue by heightening tensions within Native households.
Colonial-era laws, such as the Indian Act, ban Indigenous communities from maintaining or financing their own water treatment plants, leaving residents at the mercy of the Canadian government. However, despite promising to end all drinking water advisories by 2021, the federal government has failed to fulfill its commitments to Native groups. It is now estimated that in some communities, long-term water infrastructure will not be in place until 2026 at the earliest.
The National Assessment of First Nations Water and Wastewater Systems estimated in 2018 that $4.7 billion CAD is needed to bring sustainable water systems to Native communities, but the federal government has pledged just $1.8 billion CAD. This lack of funding comes as a slap in the face to water activists, who point to the $4.5 billion CAD pledged to build the Trans Mountain Pipeline, a project which endangers the aquifer providing clean water to the C’eletkwmx people of British Columbia.
While water contamination is generally attributed to the poverty or remoteness of reserves, Canada’s water crisis is inextricably linked to its genocidal history and the realities of Indigenous colonization and dispossession.
Indigenous cosmologies emphasize the sacredness of water, which involves understanding lakes and river systems to be sources of interconnection between humans, animals, and nature. Resultantly, the importance of safeguarding waterways against pollution has historically informed the fishing, hunting, and waste-management practices of Native groups. The settlers who arrived in North America adopted a different approach; to them, the Earth and its water were commodities, sources from which profit could be extracted. The contamination of Canada’s water systems is a direct consequence of settler-colonialism; the water crisis unfolding in Native communities would not exist if Indigenous groups had not been forcibly removed from their traditional roles as custodians of the land. Don Weitz, a prominent Torontonian activist, claimed in a 2019 letter to the Toronto Star that ongoing water advisories amount to genocide, writing that “the Canadian government’s genocidal policy of inaction and willful incompetence… is affecting Indigenous people’s health.” Aishihik elder Charles Hume agrees, telling The Guardian that “[Indigenous people are] not looked at the same … we’re actually the last on the totem pole.”
Edited by Kimberly Nicholson
Madalena Monteiro is in her third year at McGill, and is currently pursuing a Joint Honours degree in Political Science and International Development. Her areas of interest include women’s issues, labour rights, and global power dynamics.