Kashechewan Water Crisis

Kashechewan was my home for about 10 1/2 years, from January 1994 to June 2004. When I was last in the community there was an announcement on the radio that the water was safe only for flushing the toilet. That evening there was an emergency community meeting regarding the water treatment plant. E.Coli had been found in the water system, and has now been traced to the water intake pipe. Now residents are being evacuated, and it is not known how long it will be, before they can return to their community. A number of people have skin rashes, stomach upset and diarrhea, which likely result from the poor water quality.

I recall that when I first moved to Kashechewan, in 1994, most places did not have any running water. I was one of the privileged few. That water came from the old water treatment plant, and it was known that the water was not safe to drink from the tap. In the time of my predecessor, the Rev. Doug Jacques, the Rectory apartment was fitted with a Culligan water treatment system. This purified the tap water, so that it could be used for drinking. (That purification system has not been operable for a number of years.)

When the new water treatment plant was completed(about 1997), we were told that the water was safe to drink. At first, with the new plant, the water was clear, and no longer a dirty brown colour. But then there were frequent times when there was a boil water order on, and the water was once again a muddy brown colour. For the longest time before I moved(2 years? 4 years?) the boil water order was in place.

News reports about the situation speak of the people of Kash as being among the poorest of the province. When moving to Kash in 1994 I was told of a South African priest who had visited the community. He commented to someone that he did not realize that such living conditions as he found there, existed in Canada. He thought they only existed in the third world.

But Kashechewan is part of what some have called the "the fourth world". Called this because not only do many aboriginal people in Canada live in poverty, but it is said that they have also lost their culture and much of their identity as aboriginal people. I would put Kashechewan in the "fourth world", though, for other reasons. The people of Kashechewan have by and large retained their cultural identity. They have not lost their language, though it is true that there are aspects of their culture which are dying. But there is a high rate of attempted suicide in the Canadian aboriginal community. Something of their spirit has been lost. In South Africa, in the dark days of apartheid(which was in the period when the South African priest visited Kash), the black population did not have a high rate of attempted suicide. The rate was actually higher amongst the privileged white minority of the nation at that time!

In spite of the poverty of the community, there is also a certain richness of life. This is seen in the comments of a young woman of Kash who was once on the same plane flight as myself, going out to Timmins. She commented that when she left Kash she greatly missed it, as it was and is her home. Yet at the same time she realized that from a material point of view there is not much there, and there are a host of social problems.

In the midst of the poverty of the community there are some who have an incredibly rich and deep faith in Christ. They are sustained by that faith, and face the difficulties of life with a firm assurance that Christ walks with them, and that they can entrust all to Him.