Many may pride Canada on having third freshest water in the world, but did you know that many Indigenous communities do not have access to clean tap water?

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has implemented a 5-year plan to get rid of all long-term water advisories, which is coming to an end this year. The water crisis is not close to being resolved providing short-term solutions and disregarding any problems that will occur after the long-term advisories are gone.

There needs to be more action done to solve this crisis as lack of potable water is leading to high amounts of waterborne diseases and leads to many health issues. In many developed and developing countries, Federal Governments have national  drinking water safety regulations which should be implemented in Canada. The UN has declared safe drinking water as a human right, however, the Canadian government continually fails to recognize and implement this. Having a Nation Water Policy will endorse this right as The Councils of Canadians have clearly stated the national water policy should include:

1. Recognizing water as a human right
2. Declare surface and groundwater a public trust
3. Create a national public water infrastructure fund
4. A strategy is needed to address the following water pollution concerns
5. Exclude water from NAFTA and all future trade agreements

This petition is a call to action to the Federal Government to create a national water policy that acknowledges safe drinking water as a human right and creates a concrete plan to address all issues stemming from the current water crisis. We need to work with Indigenous communities to fix this crisis and give proper funding, resources, and planning to end the water crisis in Canada.

Info from (and to research more on this topic):

• https://canadians.org/waterpolicy
• https://canadians.org/fn-water
• https://www.hrw.org/report/2016/06/07/make-it-safe/canadas-obligation-end-first-nations-water-crisis

Video from Human Rights Watch