A state of emergency has been declared in the northern Ontario community of Attawapiskat after tests showed its drinking water had potentially dangerous levels of byproducts from a disinfection process.
Residents are being advised to limit their exposure to the water -- including showers -- and to not use the water to wash food.
鈥淚n this country there are thousands of Indigenous people that don鈥檛 have access to clean drinking water. Now we can鈥檛 even bathe in it? This is ridiculous,鈥� said Attawapiskat resident Adrian Sutherland on CTV News Channel Tuesday.
NDP MP Charlie Angus, whose riding includes Attawapiskat, said the community is suffering from a failure by the federal government to provide long-term infrastructure.
鈥淲hat you鈥檙e looking at is years of Band-Aid solutions on underfunded infrastructure, inadequate water and sewage, and this is what you see in many northern communities,鈥� he said.
Angus said the process of making the water usable and potable requires applying 鈥渕assive amounts of chlorine to get the impurities out,鈥� which in turn creates chemicals -- including some, he said, that 鈥渉ave been identified as cancer causing.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not that people could even drink the water before. This is to make the water so that they can bathe in it,鈥� Angus said. 鈥淭esting shows that we鈥檙e double the maximum safe levels.鈥�
He added that the situation is far beyond a boil-water advisory.
鈥淪ome of the parents I鈥檝e been speaking to [have] children who are covered in horrific rashes that we鈥檝e seen in the northern reserves from this kind of chemical exposure,鈥� Angus said. 鈥淚鈥檝e met a mother whose daughter is suffering kidney failure.鈥�
