On any given day, more than 1,000 boil-water advisories are in effect across the country, many in indigenous communities.
Places like Shoal Lake, Grassy Narrows and Neskantaga have been under boil water advisories for decades. Of these, one-third of them are in B.C.
Other provinces have a listing of why there are advisories, yet B.C. does not.
Currently, in Spallumcheen, the residents of the Hullcar Valley, who use the Hullcar aquifer as their water source by way of private wells, and a water system, Steele Springs, have had an advisory on their water.
This advisory is likely due to a very large dairy farm above our water source.
At places above our water source, there is only a couple of feet of sandy soil before there is water.
We need some legislation from a federal source to protect our most precious commodity.
I need to ask you to give these few facts a good read.
Ask yourself, why are the government bodies that are hired to protect our water not doing anything about it?
More than 80 per cent of the guidelines for Canadian drinking water quality relating to chemical contaminants provide less protection for public health than in other industrialized nations.
Canada is the only G8 country without legally enforceable drinking water quality standards at the national level. We know this to be true.
It's time for the federal government to implement the right to clean water in Canada by passing an environmental bill of rights that respects, protects and fulfils our right to a healthy environment, including the right to clean water.
Carol Mullen
Spallumcheen