After decades of 'slime,' B.C. First Nation celebrates clean drinking water

For most of Dean Morgan's 67-year life, he wasn't able to drink clean water in his home.

"It's just like a real slime…. It was like what they called beaver fever water."

Sometimes, he would go to the creek near his home on IR #1 of St'uxwtéws (Bonaparte First Nation) to grab jugs of water because it was cleaner and safer than the water he was able to get from his taps.

Morgan and his brother used to take containers of the murky water to the chief and council and to federal representatives to ask if they would be willing to drink that.

For more than four decades, parts of his community dealt with on-and-off boil water advisories. In Canada, the federal government has committed to ending long-term drinking water advisories. 

Indigenous Services Canada says 146 advisories have been lifted since 2015, but 32 remain in place.

Since 2020, St'uxwtéws near Cache Creek has been able to get more than $14 million in funding from Indigenous Services Canada to put in water treatment plants.

The 264 on-reserve members live in three reserves in the community, meaning it took time for all the homes to be hooked up to effective water treatment systems. 

This summer, the nation was able to hook up the final two of four water treatment plants needed to ensure all three of its reserves have clean, safe drinking water.

Kukpi7 Frank Antoine says it's advocacy from the whole community that led to these new facilities.

"Our generation, especially our elders, who weren't elders back then, our elders today are the ones who are benefiting from it now."

The new facilities remove heavy metals along with strange smells and tastes, leaving clean water.

"This is massive. You don't take into account how much water affects you," said Byron Porter, the St'uxwtéws' water manager.

He helps to run the facilities, and while there were challenges to getting these sites up and running, he said they were guided by a shared goal.