This project was developed in response to a request from Yellow Quill First Nation to share Elders’ lived experiences of water on a reserve as a story, and reveal how those experiences influenced the state of the water today. Elders, community leaders, youth and researchers built relationships through a process of creating an empowering art-animation [...]
Using both Indigenous and Western knowledge in integrative ways is being increasingly recognized as an approach to address these serious problems but to date, there has not been a systematic review of what has been done to determine what has worked, what has not, and the reasons why. Thus, the goal of this Integrative Knowledge [...]
Water-related problems that disproportionately impact many Indigenous communities across Canada are often a matter of environmental injustice and the failings of colonial structures and policies. Western science and technology have been applied to these water issues in attempts to rectify them, but these fixes are not working. Integrative approaches that attempt to implement Indigenous and [...]
As of April 2016, there are over 157 drinking water advisories in 111 First Nation communities in Canada. For decades, decision makers at the federal level focused on providing technical solutions through new treatment plant infrastructure. However, many now believe that technical solutions that do not meaningfully incorporate a community’s perspective and local knowledge will [...]
The goal of this research was to better understand the complex interactions between First Nations and colonial water governance in British Columbia, including: how colonial water governance frameworks have impacted different First Nations; barriers and opportunities for First Nations in the existing system; and the potential implications of a shift towards collaborative watershed governance. This [...]
This project collected information on Liard First Nation’s drinking water access, safety and sustainability in order to help community leaders make decisions about supply, management and policy. Using a community-based research method, researchers tested the quality of 40 private drinking water wells that are not regularly monitored; studied how the area’s groundwater and surface water [...]
The Water Knowledge Application Network (WatKAN) was created to improve the understanding of and ability to predict the impacts of permafrost thaw on the shared water resources in the North. This network builds capacity and predictive tools that predict the rate and pattern of permafrost thaw and resulting changes in landcover and water supply in [...]
Wastewater management in Canada’s Far North is challenging for many reasons: extreme cold climate, permafrost, short summers, remote locations, smaller populations and a shortage of skilled operators. Because of this, many communities use passive technologies like waste stabilization ponds — exclusively, or in combination with a wetland treatment area. This research examines existing treatment performance [...]
Approximately 20% of the Canadian public rely on on-site wastewater systems (OWS) to treat their domestic wastewater with some jurisdictions having even higher percentages (e.g. Nova Scotia ~50%). Many of these OWS are not properly maintained or are improperly designed and constructed, which may pose a significant risk to both surface- and groundwater resources.
Everyone wants to know that their tap water is safe to drink, however, risk will always be present in a complex system, and water treatment and delivery is no exception. Through sound management, risk can be controlled and reduced so that consumers can drink their tap water with confidence.