Boil water advisory to end as Wauzhushk Onigum First Nation finalizes water agreement with Kenora, Ont.

About 400 people who have lived under a boil-water advisory for nearly a decade, will soon be able drink the water coming out of their kitchen faucet.

"It's something that we take for granted. Wake up in the morning and you turn on the tap," said Dan Reynard, the mayor of Kenora.

"There are young people on, at WON that have never had fresh water. Everything either has to be boiled, or brought in." 

Kenora city council voted to accept an agreement between the city and First Nation this week on how to operate the system. Wauzhusk Onigum accepted the agreement a couple of weeks ago.

The federal government contributed $7.2 million to the project, to build water and sewer lines in the First Nation community.

"It's connecting their infrastructure into our infrastructure," he said, noting a new line runs under Golf Course Bay, to connect the First Nation to a pumping station.

"We're talking weeks now, where the service will be running."

The majority of the work to connect the First Nation and Kenora for sewer and water was needed on Wauzhushk Onigum's side of the bay.

"We have the capacity, we've always had the capacity, it was just a matter of the federal government making it a priority to bring forth the money, and, Bob Nault was instrumental in ensuring that that funding was available."