Clean water for Oneida still years away

As a years-long boil water advisory continues to drag out, there’s cautious optimism that clean water will be flowing to residents of Oneida Nation of the Thames.

But it won’t be any time soon.

In fact it could be a number of years yet before the community can lift its boil water advisory.

"Over the holidays I heard from a lot of community members feeling a sense of hopelessness, but also a sense of guilt," said Oneida Councillor Brandon Doxtator, who oversees environmental issues for the community." Just taking a five minute shower has caused community members to be worried about their part of exacerbating the problem," he said.

While a Conserve Water Notice was recently lifted, the community remains under a State of Emergency, with a boil water advisory also still in effect, which began in September of 2019.

The good news, said Doxtator, is that they’re now in the early stages of hammering out what he hopes will be a 20 year deal with Indigenous Services Canada and the Water Tribunal to bring clean water into Oneida by tapping into the Lake Huron Water Supply System.

"This is a cost of 54 million dollars, so we’re looking at how that’s going to be funded through the government, and just the other smaller needs like our fire flow," said Doxtator.

According to Indigenous Services Canada, 137 drinking water advisories in First Nations communities have been lifted since 2015. Thirty-three remain in effect in 29 different communities.

Area MPs are hopeful a solution for Oneida is in the offing.

"I very much hope that we see a new water system begin to be constructed by this spring, but there are conversations ongoing on the technical side of things," said London North Centre Liberal MP Peter Fragiskatos.

Elgin Middlesex London Conservative MP Karen Vecchio said getting clean water to Oneida is not a partisan issue, but a human rights issue.

"You think about the water system being so close, so close to the city of London, finding these solutions is really, really important, so I’m applauding this moving forward," said Vecchio.

And while the Lake Erie Water Supply System currently services homes that run along the border of Oneida, just steps away from the First Nation Community, Doxtator said that engineers have deemed the Lake Huron route to be more feasible.

In the meantime, once a deal is finally inked, construction is expected to take 18 months.

By that time it would be more than five years of residents having to boil their water so they don’t get sick.

Doxtator called the lengthy process frustrating.

"We have to come back to community members and say that we’re still working on it, after years of still working on it," he said.