Program Background

Lack of safe drinking water is a serious public health threat, limits opportunities for development, deepens inequalities, and undermines the social fabric of the communities experiencing such conditions. The process of colonization denied the water right of Indigenous peoples in many countries around the globe. In Canada, one in six First Nations communities is on a drinking water advisory at any given time. In British Columbia, many communities have endured drinking water advisories lasting longer than a decade. Drinking water is an important pathway through which the environment impacts human health and there are many factors which can result in unsafe drinking water being supplied to First Nations households, many of which are related to the small size of these communities, their close proximity to mining and logging activities, and the high cost of water treatment systems’ construction, maintenance, and operation. Though drinking water quality has long been flagged as a barrier to good health in many First Nations communities, progress made on this issue has been limited. Challenges to safe drinking water for First Nations in British Columbia are related to the province’s economic reliance on natural resource extraction.

Conference

The Centre for Aboriginal Health Research began working on our Indigenous Water Ways Research Program in the fall of 2009, designing a series of information-gathering activities leading towards multidisciplinary research projects on safe drinking water for First Nations. The first of these activities was the Consensus Conference on Small Water Systems Management for the Promotion of Indigenous Health, which took place March 21-23, 2010 on traditional Coast Salish territory. This event brought together participants from Canada and abroad for presentations and panel discussions to address safe drinking from three perspectives: research and public health; community and traditional knowledge; and, governance and policy. The ideas shared at that conference, and the knowledge gaps identified, emphasized the need for greater community involvement in decisions affecting water quality as well as stronger communication of ideas between practitioners and academics of different fields. Themes emerging from this gathering include greater self-determination for First Nations on issues affecting their water and the importance of cross-sectoral and cross-disciplinary analysis and communication in developing solutions. Products of the conference include video documentation of all the presentations, featured on the home page, and the documentary “Crisis on Tap: First Nations Water for Life”.

Workshop

The second phase of this program is a series of workshops held in First Nation communities across British Columbia in July, 2010. CAHR’s vision for these workshops was that partner communities would have a hand in workshop planning – from identifying important themes to inviting participants to content development – and this is what was achieved, thanks to highly motivated communities and leaders responding to our announcement of this project. Community members’ perspectives were shared and community-level goals, values, and priorities were identified. Outcomes of these workshops were based on local needs and goals and include: plans for developing a water stewardship program; source water protection plans; declarations asserting First Nations’ rights and responsibilities regarding water; commitments to work with neighbouring Nations; and, community mapping plans. The workshop series also led to strengthened researcher-community relations and laid the foundation for further community-based research, with all participating communities expressing an interest in continuing working with CAHR on this important issue.

Highlights of community actions plans being developed or currently in place include: increasing community awareness, building relationships with neighbouring water users, establishing water conservation practices within the community, training community members in water quality testing and improving local infrastructure.

Documentary

On Canada Day, 2011, CAHR released the documentary “Crisis on Tap: First Nations Water for Life building on the momentum of the above noted projects. This poignant piece takes a critical look at the reality this environmental public health challenge, as expressed by First Nations peoples living in Canada. The film is available on YouTube, we hope you will take the time to view it and share this link with others in the hope that it will shed light on a path toward the provision of safe, potable water for all Canadians.

[Click here for a link to the trailer]

[Click here for a link to the full documentary]

Publication

In March, 2012, CAHR released the publication “Crisis on Tap: Seeking Solutions for Safe Water for indigenous Peoples”. This book shares the proceedings of the previously mentioned conference, previously published papers, and a report summarizing the process and finding of the workshop series. For a digital copy of this publication please go to: http://cahr.uvic.ca/programs-research/publications/

Annotated Bibliography

For more information on the important issue of safe drinking water in Aboriginal communities please see the annotated bibliography “Water and Aboriginal peoples’ health” http://cahr.uvic.ca/programs-research/publications/

Conference Proceedings DVD

For a full digital version of the Consensus Conference on Small Water Systems Management for the Promotion of Indigenous Health DVD, please go to http://cahr.uvic.ca/nearbc/videos.html or to order a complimentary copy of the DVD, please contact Robynne Edgar, Programs Manager at redgar@uvic.ca.

For more information on the CAHR Indigenous Water Ways program, please contact Robynne Edgar at redgar@uvic.ca.

Our Program Partners

Dr. Azit Mazumder

Research: Ecosystem and Watershed Ecology of Freshwater and Marine Ecosystems

My long-term research interest is to understand and model nutrient-foodweb dynamics of freshwater and marine ecosystems, and associated patterns of water quality, fisheries productivity, fate and transport of nutrients, energy and contaminants along aquatic foodwebs, and aquatic diversity. During the last decade, my research team has been approaching these fundamental ecological concepts and theories using ecosystem-level projects in coastal and interior BC, Alaska, northern Quebec and Ontario. Some of these projects are: nutrient limitation of aquatic productivity in coastal and interior lakes, delineation of aquatic foodweb structure and sources of energy along aquatic foodwebs using stable isotope geochemistry, linkages among foodweb structure, energy transfer efficiency and Hg accumulation in plankton and fish, ecosystem level impacts of fish farm on contaminants in traditional seafoods of aboriginal people, fish farm impacts on sea lice infection of juvenile Pacific salmon, nutrient-foodweb ecology of sockeye salmon ecosystems in Alaska and BC, foodweb dynamics and trophic interactions among juvenile Pacific salmon in the Bering Sea Ecosystem, resource partitioning between brook trout and juvenile Atlantic salmon in northern Québec streams, and the impact of selective sport fishing on foodweb structure, resource allocation and Hg accumulation in lake trout of selected Ontario lakes.

Besides these, my major interest has always been to link ecological understanding to aquatic resource management, and sustainable clean and healthy water for public health and safety. To achieve these, we have been working in partnership with several regional water supply authorities and over 20 communities in BC, and 16 aboriginal communities across Canada, and developing science and decision-making tools to reduce microbial and chemical health risks in source and tap water through best land- and water-use practices, optimization of disinfection byproducts and through tracking sources of microbial and chemical pollution of source water. Our current research interest is also on the quality of water in the rural and slump communities in under-developed countries like Bangladesh, Haiti and Cambodia, where we are testing how the availability of safe household water leads to improved health and childhood education.

Dr. Mazumder partnered with CAHR in the organization of the Consensus Conference on Small Water Systems Management for the promotion of Indigenous Health, providing expert advice for conference themes and invited speakers. He opened the event with a 45 minute featured presentation on March 21, 2010, and will be featured in the production of a documentary CAHR is currently working on emphasizing the urgency and complexity of the water crisis. CAHR looks forward to future collaboration with Dr. Mazumder on a knowledge synthesis review examining the intersections of different themes identified during our summer workshop series. For this project Dr. Mazumder will identify key bodies of literature pertaining to aquatic sciences and small water systems as well as contribute to the interpretation of data.