This article was originally published in the April 12, 2012 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press
By: Mary Agnes Welch
Thomas Spence, the community health boss on the South Indian Lake reserve, marvelled at the Université de Saint-Boniface's high-tech self-flushing toilets Wednesday night.
Where he's from, hundreds of people are still using slop pails. Spence, who spoke at the university during a small forum on running water, said more than 40 per cent of the houses on his remote reserve lack indoor plumbing. Where once band members could drink from the lake, the effects of hydro flooding in the 1970s have made that dangerous.
"The only time we had to boil water was to make tea for our grandparents," he said of his youth.
On-reserve water woes in Manitoba have been well-documented, but most of the attention has focused on four reserves around Island Lake, hundreds of kilometres from Spence's home. Around Island Lake, there are about 900 homes with no indoor taps or toilets.
But another 500 homes without modern sanitation are scattered on reserves across the province and they have been largely overlooked.
About 50 homes in South Indian Lake have no service -- no piped water, no cistern and no indoor taps and toilets. Approximately 30 homes had cisterns at one point -- huge barrels under the house that got filled regularly by a water truck. But those cisterns are no longer working. They've been contaminated or have broken pumps.
Spence paid $5,000 to have a cistern and sewage tank installed under his home, but he is employed as the community health representative and able to pay for it. Many in the community are on welfare and will never be able to pay for proper water.
In the 1970s, the Churchill River diversion caused water levels in the community to rise about three metres and damaged one of the highest-grade fisheries in the province, putting many out of work.
In exchange, Spence said, Manitoba Hydro promised residents houses that had running water. Some were built and the band got $18 million in compensation in 1992, but the problem persists.
Since then, the band has come under federal jurisdiction.
Spence said he'd like the province, Ottawa and Manitoba Hydro to help solve the problem.