Canada's Water Crisis: Canada's Dirty Little Secret

Introduction

Canada is viewed by the world as a perfect country. Even Canadians believe that we have everything going for us. But we've been hiding something from the world and our citizens for far too long.

Many First Nations peoples living on reserves do not have access to clean water.

You may think this is strange for such a rich country like Canada to have such an issue with water, but we do. And I can agree that it is strange.

This shouldn't be a problem. After all, Canada is considered a water-rich country, so why is this a problem?

The two main things that contribute to this issue are remote locations and systematic racism. 

And if you for some reason believe that this doesn't have anything to do with racism, I have proof for you.

Only First Nations reserves are affected by this water crisis. And on top of that, there was a water crisis in a town in Ontario called Walkertown back in May of 2000.

The Walkertown E. coli Outbreak was a water crisis in Walkertown where the filtration system for the town stopped working and the water became contaminated with E. coli. 27 people died due to this and over 2000 citizens were infected with the bacteria.

However, the problem was fixed quickly and they now have the best water filtration in Canada.

Meanwhile, First Nations peoples are left without potable water for years.

This water crisis started over 40 years ago and has still not been solved.

From what I've learned in school and in doing my own research, this water crisis begun about 42 years ago. However evidence points to an even longer time than that: possibly going back around 60 years ago. Though I'm not sure how accurate this number is, it's safe to assume this has been going on for a while.

Many communities have been without water for years and have no end to their issue in sight.

If you're wondering what's being done to solve this water crisis, here's your answer:

Next to nothing.

Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, promised when he was elected in 2015 that he would end all long term boil water advisories across Canada by March 2021.

But this means just long term advisories. This means that he promised to end all boil water advisories that have been in affect for over a year. And if a short term advisory was put in place, he still counts it as a victory.

On top of that, he doesn't count reserves in British Columbia and the territories. That 4 places filled with people being ignored.

This has to stop.

It's been too long with no end in reach. Our leader made a promise to end this crisis by March. 

He broke that promise.

I'm honestly not sure what to do, but I assume the first step would be to let people know about this. I'm making this up as I go.

Please read and share this. Tag people in the comments if you'd like. 

Thank you for taking time out of your day to read this. Chapters are coming to talk more on this issue and things such as the different types of advisories, who is affected, who's in charge of solving the problem and why it's an issue, and what's being done to solve the problem.