ARCiTechs (kNOwH2O)

The theme of the 2021 ESRI Canada GIS Centres of Excellence (ECCE) App Challenge targets the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reducing Inequalities. SDG 10 can be broken down into reducing inequalities within and between countries; being students at the University of Calgary, we chose to focus on reducing inequalities within Canada. Inequalities transverse space, place, and time, and can arise due to differences in the socio-economic status of people because of their income, ethnicity, or gender, among other factors. Marginalized and vulnerable groups specifically face difficulties in accessing the basic needs and resources that are readily available to other Canadians because of systemic inequalities. The COVID-19 Pandemic has exacerbated these difficulties, and as the most impacted communities begin to rebuild, it is important that issues like this are prioritized.

In Canada, Indigenous peoples have been subjected to discrimination and mistreatment by the non-indigenous population and governments over the course of the country's history. One inequality that continues to persist within First Nations and Indigenous communities is access to clean water for drinking and sanitation which were recognized by the UN as basic human rights in 2010 and 2016 (UN, 2010; UN, 2016). While clean water and sanitation for all encompass the UN's SDG 6, lack of access to potable water has profound negative implications for the health and prosperity of people, making it a measure of inequality (UN Water, n.d.). Concerningly, a high number of Indigenous communities in Canada have been under long-term boil water advisories (BWA), often for several years or even decades, because their water is contaminated with bacteria or pollutants that make it unsafe to drink (Human Rights Watch, 2016). In 2016, the Canadian Federal Government tabled a budget as part of their commitment to end long-term drinking water advisories on public, on-reserve water systems by 2021, and has continued to commit funding annually to do so (Government of Canada, 2021a). However, Canada's Auditor General Karen Hogan recently reported that the government is not on track to reach its goal and "is not doing enough to ensure First Nations communities have reliable access to safe drinking water" (Stefanovich et al., 2021).

As of 2016, there were water advisories for 134 water systems in 85 First Nations territories across Canada (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Currently, the Government of Canada reports that 58 long-term drinking water advisories are still active, affecting 39 communities and the needs of their residents (Government of Canada, 2021b). Water quality for First Nations communities, still, remains unregulated by the Federal Government even though the health impacts of poor water quality are well-documented (Human Rights Watch, 2016). Sufficient funding for water treatment facilities and upgrades on Indigenous territories represents a well-intended approach by the Federal Government, however, seeing the completion of these projects through, continually monitoring water quality, and implementing new policy approaches are ways forward to tackle this grand-challenge. Achieving safe water for drinking and sanitation for all Indigenous communities across Canada will improve equality within the country. We have developed an app, kNOwH2O, to highlight the inequality Indigenous peoples living in Canada are facing with access to water resources and are confident it will contribute to greater awareness and focused action towards solving the problem.

Everyone has the right to clean, safe, and accessible water. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities within Canada continue to be affected by the long-standing issue of living with unsafe drinking water as the result of systemic inequality, discrimination, and mistreatment. Indigenous communities disproportionately experience limited access to clean water, as most Canadians living off Indigenous territories have access to a potable water supply for drinking and sanitation. Our app, kNOwH2O, will reduce inequalities within Canada by highlighting the right Indigenous communities have to clean water, creating conversation around the problem, and promoting the action of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians, as well as governments, in finally ending water quality advisories on Indigenous lands.

The kNOwH2O Dashboard app displays where Boil Water Advisories (BWA), Boil Water Orders (BWO), and Do Not Consume (DNC) statuses are currently in place on Indigenous territories throughout Canada, including advisories that have been revoked since 2016. Our app seeks to provide Indigenous communities and non-Indigenous peoples living in Canada with up-to-date information on changes to the water quality statuses within band territories. This offers the benefit to the end-user of being informed of new status updates to the water quality and water treatment infrastructure within Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities, also, can use the app to understand the actions being taken to improve their water resources. Most importantly, however, the kNOwH2O app can be used to expand the conversation around the inequalities that affect the accessibility of clean water for Indigenous peoples in Canada. The app uses Federal-level data from the Government of Canada on drinking water advisories in First Nations communities as well as the locations of all band offices in Canada. The data will update automatically whenever the data sets are revised. Finally, kNOwH2O includes a widget that provides contact information and an email link to reach Government of Canada officials and hold them accountable in addressing the problem. This can also help Indigenous communities to communicate their water infrastructure needs to the government in a time-sensitive manner, improving equality within Canada as upgrades are made and BWA's are lifted.

kNOwH2O offers a high degree of functionality and user interactivity within the ArcGIS Dashboard environment. Starting with the ESRI base map, users of the application can adjust the spatial extent of the map and visualize the location of different Indigenous territories in Canada and their geographic boundaries. Displayed on this base map are two unique types of data: 1. The location of the band offices of all indigenous territories in Canada (see Government of Canada, 2015), and 2. Current water quality advisories that apply to water sources within indigenous communities in Canada, including revoked advisories since 2016 (see Government of Canada, 2018). Both data sources are available as open-data through the Government of Canada web portal. App users can explore the data simply by adjusting the extent of the map, but more intensive analysis options are also available within the Dashboard. Specifically, the Dashboard displays water quality advisories by date, highlighting the fact that some Indigenous communities have not had clean drinking water for over a decade or more. Similarly, users can view current advisory statuses broken down by provinces in a pie chart, and also the count of advisory statuses by type across Canada within two separate visualization widgets. Finally, app users can interact with the data by searching unique Indigenous communities in Canada to inquire if a specific community is subject to any type of water advisory. Users will note that the data frame is being constantly refreshed to maintain the relevance and accuracy of the map and visualizations in the event the Government of Canada makes changes to their data sets. Links to the desktop and mobile versions of kNOwH2O, our Dashboard application, are available below, in addition to a Swipe Map that presents an important finding from analyzing our data.

Water trucks can only carry enough water to fill approximately four cisterns (storage tanks for water) at a time. Due to high demand for the refilling of cisterns, water trucks are often not sanitized properly in between transportation runs, causing the water to be contaminated before it arrives in Indigenous communities. Of equal concern, is that many cisterns are in need of repair and updates. Cisterns, also, crack over time from harsh winters, allowing contaminating sources such as rodents, organic matter, bugs, and even snakes to infiltrate the storage system (Baijius and Patrick, 2019).

Indigenous communities are not always involved in the planning and distribution of the current water systems they have in place. Many residents want, and prefer, to have piped systems, but the Federal Government continues to direct new funding towards repairing water resource systems that are currently underperforming (water from trucks and cisterns). If the needs and opinions of Indigenous peoples were more strongly considered, and initial government funding was invested in more appropriate and resilient projects, the problem Indigenous peoples are facing today with access to clean water would cease to exist. Millions of dollars are being poured into water infrastructure developments in First Nations communities, however, without a more clear objective and greater consideration of the needs of our Indigenous peoples, this problem may continue to persist (Baijius and Patrick, 2019). 

Another source of water contamination in Indigenous communities occurs from the disposal methods of human waste. Sewage, normally, is piped out of the household and can end up being deposited on the surface in people's backyards. This is known a sewage 'shoot-out,' and flooding events are known to amplify this process of water contamination (Baijius and Patrick, 2019). Proper construction of landfills with impermeable materials to reduce the amount of leaching into the soil has not occurred in our First Nations communities.

Some communities have implemented Point of Entry (PoE) water treatment systems. Costs for this type of technology average $10,000 per household and only serve one household. This could represent a viable solution for houses that are isolated from others within their communities, however, the success of these PoE systems is dependent on the quality of the water source; some of which are too unreliable for this type of solution. See Lytton First Nation, BC as an example (Canada’s Water Crisis, 2018).

Integrated Biological and Reverse Osmosis Process is another solution to provide clean water within Indigenous communities. For example, the estimated savings for the George Gordon First Nation has been roughly $100,000 a year from reduced maintenance, replacements, and chemical use in comparison to other techniques (Peterson, et. al., 2007).

More stringent cistern cleaning protocols and replacements could also be a path forward to cleaner water. Many remote Indigenous communities are supplied with water on a weekly basis through water delivery trucks and storage in cisterns. If cisterns are not properly cleaned (yearly basis), the water can become contaminated due to sludge build-up. Cistern caps, also, should be locked in order to keep the head of the cistern from being tampered with and to ensure more reliable water quality.

One reason preventing the wide adoption of piped systems at the household level, even if the community itself is receiving piped water, is that it is challenge to route water pipes to the houses and families that live in remote geographic locations from the center of their community. In this case, the government could invest upfront in piped systems and build them extensively enough for a growing community, with newly built structures being able to connect at a later date. This could encourage residents that live far from the center of the community to migrate closer to other residents where clean water is readily available. Fundraisers and grants for personalized water treatment systems for the residents that live most remotely could also be a solution.

Water needs to be monitored to ensure it is safe for consumption. For example, water drawn from unsafe sources puts enormous strain on water treatment plants in First Nations communities. The Attawapiskat source their water from a bog even though a river is geographically adjacent. This is because government does not permit them pull water from the river and instead promised an upgraded treatment plant (see the video below). Maintaining source water quality, therefore, is equally important in solving the water crisis within Indigenous communities.

With our app, kNOwH2O, we hope to better communicate the water inequality problem that continues to persist in Canada. Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, as well as governments, can use this app to see which Indigenous communities have water quality advisories in place, track progress in addressing the problem, and hold government officials accountable through the contact information widget. Improving water quality in Indigenous communities is the responsibility of all Canadians, and by doing so, equality can be improved within our country.