Just 90 minutes from Toronto, residents of the Six Nations of the Grand River indigenous reserve face a severe water crisis, while Nestlé extracts millions of litres of water daily from their treaty land. Iokarenhtha Thomas, a mother of five, has lived without running tap water since age 16. Her family relies on buckets for washing and toilets, and drives 10km to buy bottled water for drinking.
Thomas's six-year-old son developed a persistent rash, later diagnosed as impetigo, which she believes came from washing with rainwater collected from gutters. 'It made me feel like a bad mother,' she said. The community's public works director, Michael Montour, reports that 91% of homes are not connected to the water treatment plant. Some have no water at all, while others have polluted tap water.
Nestlé pumps up to 3.6 million litres of water daily from the nearby Erin well, located on land granted to the Six Nations under the 1701 Nanfan Treaty. Professor Dawn Martin-Hill of McMaster University, a Six Nations local, said the community did not approve the extraction and asked Nestlé to stop, but pumping continues.
Canada, home to 60% of the world's lakes, currently has 50 indigenous communities under long-term boil water advisories, affecting an estimated 63,000 people. However, this figure may underestimate the problem, as some communities like Six Nations have functional water plants but lack plumbing. Health issues linked to the water crisis include hepatitis A, gastroenteritis, and skin infections.
