Community members step up during Oneida water emergency

While washing dishes, Janet Antoine now turns to using bottled water.

“Every drop matters at this point,” said Antoine from her home on Oneida Nation of the Thames.

Like most homes on Oneida Nation of the Thames, south of London, Ont., you will find cases of water inside the front door.

“It's sort of feels like a waiting game of when the pressure in the water tower is [going to] bottom out,” said Antoine.

The First Nation said the community’s water tower, Oneida’s primary water source, is at an all-time low.

In the community of more than 2,000, the cease-water use order impacts 546 homes and 22 community buildings. As a short-term measure, water is being brought in by a private company at a cost of $20,000 per day.

Janet Antoine and other members of Oneida First Nation of the Thames have been asked to cease water use during a water emergency (Brent Lale/CTV News London)

Janet Antoine knew something needed to be done. The community member organized a fundraiser, and money started coming in.

“I’ve received $6,000 in donations so far,” said Antoine, who had to stop taking money as it was more than she ever imagined, and couldn’t handle processing all the transfers.

That’s when Chris Patriquin from Simply Pure Water in St. Thomas, Ont. entered the scene. Antoine contacted the Oneida member, and he now is providing hundreds of five-gallon jugs at a fraction of his cost.

“These are our friends, our neighbors, you know, so it's important, they're part of our community,” said Patriquin. “It's important that everybody steps up.”

Every day, he’s loading up the van with 60 jugs at a time.

“It's my second trip today,” says Patriquin. “I've already been out there [and] I took a load of water out first thing this morning, and we're going to take this out now and take another load out maybe later today, if needed.”

With the community under a boil water advisory for three years, and the water tower at an all-time low level, they are calling for government support.

Elgin-Middlesex- London MP Karen Vecchio has been in conversation with London North-Centre MP Peter Fragiskatos about the progress on connecting Oneida with Lake Huron’s water supply.

The water tower at the Oneida Nation of the Thames is seen on Dec. 20, 2022. (Bryan Bicknell/CTV News London)

“He had shared with me there are plans to start a dig in and start this infrastructure coming in the spring of 2023,” explained Vecchio. “Of course, there's still negotiations going on, but to me that's really steps forward.”

She is calling on parties to find non-partisan solutions for the crisis and to work together moving forward.

“You look out how close to there, the City of London, the municipalities, the County of Elgin, and it's great what they're doing coming out of Huron,” said Vecchio.

She added, “Those are great projects that need to be happening, and we know across this country that we have other reserves, and we need to continue to push to make sure that we have clean water. That is what reconciliation is about, and we need to work together to make sure we're getting these projects done.”

But until the red tape is removed, and the water tower’s levels return to normal, these residents will continue to have to conserve and struggle.

“I just tried to do what I could to come in with a short-term solution and I'm grateful that people were willing to step up and help out,” said Antoine.