Lheildi T’enneh Chief Dolleen Logan took aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the lack of access to clean drinking water across Canada.
Today (Friday), the host first nation announced plans to upgrade the Wastewater Treatment and Domestic Water Supply systems for the North and Southside subdivisions.
Logan told the media patience from Indigenous leaders is wearing thin after Trudeau made an election promise in 2015 that more Indigenous communities would have access to clean drinking water.
“We are not asking for the world, we are not asking for them to change the climate tomorrow – all we want is clean and safe drinking water for our families.”
“The one person that we can blame is Trudeau. The number one priority that was in his first election campaign was to improve first nations drinking water. As of, August of this year, there are still 93 Indigenous communities under the boil water advisory.”
“We were promised this, this was his campaign, and we still have to fight with them to get a little bit of help. With the bottled water, I might add, the band is paying for it under their own sourced revenue, the federal government is not helping. We are doing our best, we have flushed the systems many times, and other times we have had to shut the water off.”
Currently, a “Do Not Consume’ order has been in place for members living in both communities since August.
The water system is OK to use for bathing, washing clothes and dishes but not for drinking.
According to Manager of Capital Projects and Asset Management Zawad Abedin, Manganese (Mn) has a Maximum Acceptable Concentration (MAC) of 0.12 mg/L and Aesthetic Objective (AO) of 0.02 mg/L, set by Health Canada.
With the existing wastewater treatment facility, Mn in water runs through the water softener and adsorption filters, which has potential necessary prerequisite parameters and ranges to perform efficiently.
In addition, Abedin noted the raw water has a very high level of Manganese, over 1 mg/L, and the need of a state-of-the-art system to remove this problem is evident, and this cannot wait.
“Drinking water definitely can’t wait. We don’t know for sure when we are going to have that but we have ensured council and administration that members will have access to safe water and we have done that through the safe water supply.”
The current water system for north and southside residents was built between the 1960s-1970s.
In regards to the Wastewater system, the host first nation is trying to secure funding so that a brand new system can be set up by the end of next year.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
