Tuesday, September 7th, 2010
Constance Lake First Nation – Constance Lake First Nation has declared a state of emergency as 900 residents in the Northern Ontario community have been without water for the last eight days. It appears a thick layer of algae has formed over the lake blocking access to the main water supply for the community.
Constance Lake Chief Arthur Moore along with the band council of Constance Lake are demanding urgent action to address the water crisis from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. The community is requesting resources to improve the water treatment facility that is not in compliance with Ontario regulations.
Chief Moore says; “Access to a safe and useable water supply is a right of every person living in this country. My community is suffering and I fear the lack of clean water will lead to despair and ill health. No one should have to live in these kind of conditions.”
Currently the community is receiving a limited supply of potable water from the small town of Hearst; however it is not enough to provide necessary amounts for the First Nation’s homes and facilities including the senior’s home and High School.
Moore continues; “Think about trying to survive with only litres of bottled water a day for all of your drinking, bathing, washing and cooking needs. This water system shutdown will cause economic, social and major health concerns for the community of Constance Lake.”
Emergency funding from INAC is needed to retain engineering services to find possible solutions to the issue immediately and to assist in determining the best course of action to address the water issue.
First Nation communities across Northern Ontario have been battling with water issues for decades. This year over 114 First Nations across the country were under drinking water advisories with 49 water systems classified as high risk, according to Constance Lake First Nation.
Today the United Nations General Assembly are expected to vote on a resolution that seeks to declare the right to water and sanitation as a human right.
The fix is really a simple one…clean the filters at the water intake point…or is this too much of an effort of this community to do.?
If this was done on a regular basis, there would be no problem.
Maybe the chief should assign this simple task to a few of his band members.
The people of Constance Lae are not idiots – if the infrastructure is not there – there is nothing that the certified engineers (yes certified) can do – it’s not an issue of human capacity!
Unfortunately the solution is not as simple as cleaning the intake filters regularly. The quickest way to get clean water to Constance Lake community members is to find a new water source such as installing a well and also by making appropriate changes to the water treatment plant. But finding a new water source will not stop the problem of algae blooms in Constance Lake which may be harming the ecosystem. I am not sure if the blooms are creating other problems such as fish kills. If the algae is causing other problems, Constance Lake First Nation may want to investigate the cause of the algae blooms in an effort to protect the lake environment – once they have a new water source for the community in place of course.
a possible cause of algae blooms in a lake in that location is an un-natural increase in phosphates – aka – raw sewage must be getting into the lake. I do no think there is a natural way for algae to become that significant of a problem, maybe a sewage leak or dumping of untreated sewage is the culprit?