School, nursing station close in northern Manitoba First Nation due to lack of running water

A First Nation in northern Manitoba that has been under a boil water advisory for more than six years has had little running water at all for the past several days.

Sheri Schweder, director of the women's crisis centre in Kisematawa, also known as Shamattawa First Nation, says while the community usually has running water, the taps have been mostly dry for the past week, and jugs of clean drinking water for community members have not been flown in since before Christmas. 

"This has been going on for about a week now, that our water comes and goes," Schweder said.

"It's frustrating. It gets a lot of people angry," and has had wide-reaching effects in the community, she said.

"Normally the rule is if the water's not running, don't send your kids to school. So this morning … we were waiting for the water, but it's not running," Schweder said Friday.

"The nursing station is closed due to no water.… I think they've been on emergencies-only for five days now."

The First Nation, about 750 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, has been under a boil water advisory since 2018. The community is only accessible by winter road or air, and is home to around 1,425 people.

According to the federal government, attempts to repair the remote community's water treatment plant have been unsuccessful in addressing its water treatment problems.

David Trout, the community's health director, says while things have been particularly bad the past week, the cold weather began creating issues with running water at the nursing station around a month and a half ago.

"This is the first week that the nursing station has really struggled," said Trout. "[The nurses] were getting frustrated."

'I don't want anybody to get sick'

It costs around $9 to fill up a five-gallon blue water jug and $25 to buy a case of 24 water bottles at the store in Kisematawa. Schweder says many families cannot afford to buy enough water.

When there isn't any water, Schweder and her staff drive two kilometres to a nearby spring and fill up jugs to deliver water to vulnerable people in the community who may not have vehicles to get their own or who may not be able to afford to buy it.

"I don't want anybody to get sick," Schweder said, noting her daughter had an issue that health-care workers said was due to the water.

When water is flown in for residents, she and her staff spend up to eight hours delivering around 300 five-gallon jugs to homes in the community. Each household gets between four to 10 jugs, depending on how many people are in the home.

"There's 15 of us in our house.… We need to use the washroom, and, like, having to take care of my kids, doing dishes," she said.

"But now that there's no running water, it's going to be a lot more work where I have to go get water, heat it up and do the dishes."

Schweder said usually the jugs are stored in the community's wellness centre, but the heat stopped working there recently, and dozens of jugs meant for residents froze and cracked.

She doesn't know when more will be delivered.

"I'm not sure if any more is coming in, because we are currently in … a water crisis here," Schweder said.

Grand Chief Walter Wastesicoot of the Keewatin Tribal Council, which represents 11 First Nation governments in northern Manitoba, including Kisematawa, said in a written statement the lack of safe water is a long-standing issue in the community.

The First Nation launched a class-action lawsuit against the federal government in September 2022, alleging Canada has breached its obligations to ensure First Nations have access to clean drinking water on reserves.

After three days of arguments in October, a Federal Court justice reserved his decision in the case.

A spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada told CBC News in a written statement a project to expand and upgrade the water treatment plant and water main distribution is ongoing.

On Friday, a water plant operator in the community told ISC the water treatment plant is working and distributing drinking water to the entire community except the nursing station and the school, which are having issues with low water pressure, wrote Jacinthe Goulet, media relations for Indigenous Services Canada.

Goulet said Keewatin Tribal Council is arranging for a contractor to go to the community to look into issues at the water treatment plant.