‘Restoring water for our people’: Pilot project installs tap filters in Six Nations

The pressure was on for Rhonda Skye.

Firstly, she was representing an innovative Indigenous-driven pilot program proposing a short-term solution to ongoing water quality issues on Canadian reservations, partnering the Dreamcatcher Foundation, Healthy First Nations and the Autumn Peltier Project. Well beyond that, the filter installation Skye was overseeing this morning was on her brother Scott General's tap.

I'll give her a shot," Rhonda's younger sibling laughed. If she lies to me, I'm telling mom."

By contrast, as for many Six Nations residents, what could be termed the General family water history" is anything but a laughing matter. Returning home around 1980 when Scott was five, the family sequentially lived in a small camper trailer, garage and eventually what currently is Scott's First Line house. A backyard well supplied the family's needs from around the time he was in Grade 3; Scott's job until plumbing for running water was installed when he reached high school age (around 1989) was dipping out daily supplies with rope and bucket.

Living on Six Nations, it's knowing - always knowing - don't drink the water, don't use the water," said Lauren Hill, Dreamcatcher Foundation director of social impact and communication. It just always was what it was, is what it is."

Diving deeply into water quality issues is arguably slicing into a multilayered onion. What is not up for dissection is a significant percentage of Six Nations residents do not have safe, reliable tap water, and are dependent on bottled or trucked water for daily requirements including drinking, washing, food preparation and cooking.

Same old salmonella and E. coli'

In the mid-1990s, the General family received a public health pamphlet, encouraging well water testing. Although Rhonda recalls thinking it tasted funny," testing was a new concept.

They took a sample in a baggie down there and tested it," Scott recalled. And they said Boil it, boil it before you drink it.'"

Karl Green had a similar experience over on Sixth Line. He remembers drinking their family's well water and mixing it with juice concentrate and drink crystals as a kid" back in the late 80s and early 90s.

We didn't know any better," he said, noting, If you had running water back then, it was a big thing."

Their well has been tested multiple times beginning in the Mid-2000s, mid-teens, and as recently as last year," Green continued.

It always came back with the same old salmonella and E. coli."

A water treatment plant in Six Nations, the collaboration between the federal government and band council, currently services less than 30 per cent of the reservation's population, says Jeff Burnett, executive strategy for Dreamcatcher and managing director for Healthy First Nations.

You can drive 10 kilometres within a 360-degree radius and access clean water. If everyone can have water, why can't that be the case here?"

That this reality exists not only on remote, isolated First Nations, but also on Canada's largest reserve by population, minutes from major cities in the heartland of southern Ontario may be shocking - and potentially offensive. It's also indicative of the depth, breadth and complicated nature of understanding the issue.

Historical and contemporary mistrust of water quality are no mystery on Six Nations or many other Canadian reserves. Tackling the crisis is quite literally a multi-billion-dollar question being addressed at the federal government and band council level. Progress has and continues to be made, but the Six Nations experience underlines a broader need for short, as well as long-term solutions.

Not looking for a fight'

Enter a unique collaboration between Dreamcatcher, Healthy First Nations and the Autumn Peltier Project. Well-known in the Indigenous community, Dreamcatcher is a 25-plus-year-old registered charity historically providing education, arts, sports and medical funding. Following Burnett's connection two-plus years ago as a consultant, and in collaboration with Healthy First Nations and global Indigenous water activist Autumn Peltier, safe drinking water initiatives have been added to its mandate.

Despite its elemental importance, the concept is simple in both theory and application: water filters based on the same advanced technology as dialysis machines, which citing a medial industry practice of refusing to give a 100 per cent rating, Burnett says are 99.999" per cent effective.

Two free-of-charge options exist, direct installation on a tap, or a gravity-fed alternative with a plastic five-gallon pail. A four-member Water Project field representative combines initial installation with operational explanation, including how to properly clean and maintain filters. Representatives also conduct a brief survey to help quantify statistics around water-borne illness or skin conditions, work or school absence and bottled water cost.

Hill's elevated attention on water followed the birth of her two sons, and its direct correlation to their health, as well as the health of each child on Six Nations and every other Turtle Island reserve.

If the government's not going to do anything about it or ... I shouldn't say that, but they're taking their time ... then I need to do something about it."

Burnett began in radio, before working for or running some of the most successful advertising agencies in North America. His father's death from ALS and a subsequent challenge from his young son - he was said to be always in a meeting" - instigated a professional pivot into something more purposeful than product."

I really did refocus or re-engineer what I wanted to give back after losing my father and knowing who he was, and was I that to my children?"

The approach is not looking for a fight," he emphasized.

It's a collaboration is the thought. Now, are we happy? No, but there needs to be collaboration. At some point, we need to move past certain conversations and move closer to working together."

Everyone takes it for granted'

In part because the Dreamcatcher office is located on Six Nations, it was chosen as the pilot project's location. The program opened at the end of May, publicized through local and social media, accelerating incredibly quickly," says Burnett. To date, over 200 households have been gifted filtering systems and interest has also already been expressed in expanding the program from other First Nations, which has always been the plan.

Intergenerational mistrust of water quality runs deep. Hill couldn't bring herself to drink tap water while living in B.C. or Hamilton, and is among those on the line" (serviced by the Six Nations treatment plant) struggling to fully embrace its water, let alone a small filter's capabilities.

You've been conditioned, No, no, no, don't drink the water; no, don't use it to cook.' So, yeah, you're putting this little thing on the tap and you're telling me the water coming out is good to go?"

The association with a well-known, trusted charity like Dreamcatcher has helped, as have demonstrations by team members in which water was dipped, filtered and drank directly from the Grand River.

It gives you a visual of how well it does work," said field rep Kaci Vanevery, adding some people take a graduated approach toward drinking filtered water. They'll wash their food with it, or make their coffee."

It's going to make life easier," says General, appreciating cutting down on trips to Ohsweken to fill jugs from a central tap.

Green formerly only used his well water for showering, but since filter installation (originally on a garden hose, currently with the bucket option since his tap is incompatible) is happy to clean and cook with filtered water. He doesn't love the flavour of notoriously hard" Six Nations water, but plans on drinking it as well, following the addition of a more basic, secondary jug/filter option inside his refrigerator.

Beyond cost savings, Green appreciates eliminating the day in, day out necessity and associated nuisance of relying on bottled water.

It's hard to explain," he said of a chronic lack of access to clean water. Everyone takes it for granted."

A lot of people are unaware of the struggles we have every day, because they don't live it," Skye added. We do it every day."

We are doing something about it'

Restoring water for our people" is not only the program motto, but the why" team members find inspiration, meaning and pride in the exercise - elevated, says Skye, through the shock, excitement, appreciation and gratitude" expressed by people who can use and drink water from their tap with confidence.

You feel good about it on the inside because you are actually giving back to your community."

Fulfilling for sure," agreed field rep Jayden Martin-Vanevery.

His sibling and compatriot Ryan Martin-Vanevery was the only Indigenous student in his post-secondary global health perspectives program, noting any reference to First Nations issues there were handled by non-Indigenous instructors, and briefly at that. Ryan described First Nations water quality as a hot potato," an issue people talk about before passing along to someone else, underlining the value of Indigenous engagement in Indigenous issues.

Now, we have the potato, we are doing something about it."

Hill questions why Six Nations residents have not only had to put up with questionable water quality, but accepted that reality.

Those are all deeper questions, right? And there's a lot to untangle there. But the short of it is, I don't accept this, and we are doing everything we can, one step at a time. Yes, this is just a short-term solution, but it's something."

In conclusion, Burnett spoke to the better outcomes possible from a collaborative versus what at times has been a confrontational approach in this space of the fundamental right of water."

Let's work together on this and solve the problem."