First Nation Community in Canada Finally Gets Access to Clean Water After Waiting for 24 Years

Residents of a Canadian First Nations community who had been without safe drinking water for almost a quarter-century may finally drink from their taps, thanks to the completion of a water treatment facility earlier this week.

Angelina McLeod, a local, told the Canadian Press, "It's the end of years of battles trying to acquire the most basic requirements of existence, clean drinking water."

The inability of Shoal Lake 40 residents to obtain safe drinking water has been one of the country's longest-running problems - and a cause of embarrassment for the federal government, according to a minister on Wednesday.

At the ceremony, Marc Miller, the country's Indigenous services minister, remarked, "This is not a triumph of the federal government; this is a victory of the community."

For centuries, Canada has failed to guarantee Indigenous peoples access to safe drinking water, and supplies in dozens of communities are declared hazardous to drink.

In an interview with the Guardian earlier this year, Miller said, "It's intolerable in a nation that is monetarily one of the wealthiest in the world, and water-rich, and the fact is that many people don't have access to clean water."

Justin Trudeau reiterated his government's commitment to removing long-term boil water advisories, a pledge made by the Liberals during the 2015 election campaign.

"The water is poisonous to indigenous people who have lived on that land for generations and millennia. On Wednesday, the prime minister stated, "We're fixing that."

According to federal data, 51 long-term drinking water advisories are still in effect in 32 communities. However, since November 2015, a total of 109 advisories have been lifted.

Water Settlement

In early August, the federal government and First Nations communities reached an $8 billion settlement in two class-action lawsuits over access to safe drinking water.

The deal offers to pay locals, secure the construction of drinking water infrastructure, and modernize legislation, all of which are demands made by First Nations leaders for decades.