After 14 years, boil water advisory lifted for most in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory

For the past 14 years, Andrew Brant and many others on Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory have had to haul all their waterto their homes one jug at a time.

His arms, and those of most fellow residents, will get a well-deserved break as the southeastern Ontario First Nation west of Kingstonlifted five long-term water advisories on March 28 as they expanded connections to a new water treatment plant.

The advisories had been in place since 2008.

"It was nice being able to have a shower at whatever length I wanted," said Brant, who also owns a local organic coffee company and bakery."It was nice to not get out of the shower smelling still You get out smelling fresh and clean."

Brant says lifting these water advisories has lifteda weight off the shoulders of the community, literally and figuratively.

"Accessibility to water has been the hugest thing for uswhen it comes to resources, when it comes to development," he said.

"We're able to do more things. We see different businesses thriving."

'Long period of neglect'

Chief R. Don Maracle said of the approximately1,012 homes in the community, 786 have now been connectedwithsafe drinking water.

"In Indigenous communities, there has beena long period of neglect to these issues so the government has to spend millions of dollars to get caught up,"said Maracle, who added he had to lobby hard to get the government to help build a $27.6 million watertreatment plant.

For those who still can't access clean drinking water inside their homes, fill stations were installed on the territory with the opening of the treatment plant. Before those stations, residents had to travel off-reserve to purchase water in bulk.

Maraclesaid they continue to work to close the water access gap for that25 per cent of households still without clean water. That advisory also dates back to 2008

Justice Brown, a young mom living with her toddler on a homestead in Tyendinaga, hasto travel for showers andwater forthe crops and three goats.

She hopes to connect to the water supply by the time the house she's building is completed but saidit's difficult waiting for something as essential to human life as clean water, especially since there are municipalities just minutes down the road where access to clean water is a given.

"I know it's coming. I'm just trying to have that patience and hold out hope but it's definitely a struggle," she said.

New deadline of 2025 to end all advisories

Tyendinaga is one of 20 First Nations in Ontariothat still have federal long-term drinking water advisories in place, mostly in the northwest.

The federal government originally set a deadline to end all advisories byMarch 2021, which was one of Justin Trudeau's key election promises during the 2015 campaign. Now the government has set its sight to 2025.

• Hajdu hopes long-term boil water advisories lifted by 2025

As of March 2022, a total of 131 long-term drinking water advisories have been lifted and 34 remain throughout Canada, located in Ontario, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Most are in Ontario and Tyendinaga's is the furthest east.

"We can lament, you know, how long it took, but I think we have to celebrate thefact that these are milestone accomplishments," said Maracle this week.

He said Tyendinaga is expecting additional federal funding toward water, which the reserve plans to use toexpandthe water lines to cover the entire community.

"I just hope that the need for safe drinking water will continue to be a high priority of the government of Canada," he said.