Eabametoong First Nation remains in a state of emergency as the northwestern Ontario community marks more than a week without access to running water. The remote Ojibway First Nation of about 1,600 people is approximately 360 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, Ont. It has been in a state of emergency since a fire broke out at the Eabametoong First Nation Water Treatment Plant last Wednesday.

Tamara Brass lives at the Key First Nation. She told Yorkton This Week she enrolled in the course because of an interest in how people were accessing their water. On the Key First Nation Brass said about 80 per cent of residences access water through a treatment plant not unlike the one in Yorkton, only on a much smaller scale. The remaining residences have their own source of water. The Yorkton plant tour was one Brass said she found interesting in terms of the level of maintenance and testing employed to ensure water quality, adding it was good to get a look at what happens “behind the scenes” in terms of water quality.

Just two hours outside Toronto, more than 2,000 households on Six Nations of the Grand River live without a basic human right: clean water. Some residents can’t simply fill up a glass at their taps and drink, take a shower, or bathe their children without worrying about the water being contaminated. “We’re doing our best to progress our community as best as we can. But there comes challenges,” said Chief Mark Hill. “One of those challenges is the access to clean drinking water, potable water.”