[wind blows]
♪ ♪
Connie Walker: Zachary Flett does what he can
to help his family stay warm and safe this winter.
But it's hard in a house with no furnace, no power,
and no water.
Zachary: I wake up at 6:00 in the morning.
I make fire.
I get ready for the day.
Connie Walker: The wood stove helps,
but living without running water is a huge burden
for Zachary and his grandmother Maggie.
Maggie: We have to get the water every day,
we use about five or six pails.
We need water for washing laundry,
for keeping ourselves clean, washing our face,
our hands, because keeping ourselves clean
is pretty important in terms of hygiene and health.
Connie Walker: What about for the bathroom?
Maggie: I don't think you would want to see.
[chuckles] Well, there's an outdoor.
Zachary: There's an outhouse there.
Maggie: We have a little pail over there, but...
We do try our best and we do try
not to complain about it.
[airplane propellers]
Connie Walker: The Fletts' situation
is not new or unusual.
Garden Hill is a fly-in community
in northern Manitoba, surrounded by fresh water.
But hundreds of people living here
still don't have running water in their homes.
That's still a major improvement
from ten years ago, when just half the community
had indoor plumbing.
Then, in 2009, an H1N1 flu outbreak
hit Garden Hill hard.
Peter Mansbridge: Dozens are sick
in a Northern Native community.
Is the swine flu virus on the march?
Connie Walker: Not having running water
made it harder to contain the flu.
Reporter: As the flu spreads
to other First Nations, so does the fear and panic
about how to deal with the outbreak.
Connie Walker: When Chiefs in the region
asked for help, the federal government
sent body bags and hand sanitizers.
That response prompted outrage.
Legislator: Why hasn't the federal government sent supplies
and expertise to the Garden Hill First Nation
and others?
Connie Walker: Soon after, the federal government
pledged $30 million to retrofit homes
in the region.
Now in Garden Hill, about a third of the homes
rely on a water truck like this.
[truck beeps]
It fills up here at the water treatment plant
and delivers water to houses with new cisterns.
That's a water tank just outside
or underneath their homes.
[loud whirring]
Inside this shed is one of those new water tanks.
So, this house now has running water
and indoor plumbing.
But we've talked to a lot of people
who have these tanks, and say they still have problems.
The pumps break, the lines freeze,
and the tank runs out.
And with only two water trucks servicing
this entire community, they can wait a few days,
a few weeks, even up to a month to get a refill.
♪♪
Connie Walker: But you don't drink this water.
Wallace: No, we don't.
Connie Walker: Why not?
Wallace: Because it's sticky.
Connie Walker: Wallace Knott is one of them.
He now has something that so many Canadians
take for granted - running water.
So this is water from the cistern.
But that doesn't mean he trusts it.
Wallace: Put your hand in here.
You can feel it.
Sticky.
Connie Walker: Can I feel it?
Wallace: Now feel your hand after.
Connie Walker: There's a film on it.
Yeah.
And it doesn't taste good, either.
I wouldn't want to even taste it or sample it.
It's not drinkable.
Connie Walker: Or reliable.
Wallace says he runs out of water
nearly every two weeks.
Connie Walker: How long were you out of water for?
Maybe three, four days?
Connie Walker: And sometimes when the water
tank is empty, the sewage tank is full.
Wallace: When it gets too full,
the sewage starts coming out of the bathtub,
and it starts to get smelly in here.
I mean, it does get smelly.
And what can you do?
It's bad.
Connie Walker: Chief Dino Flett says the band
doesn't have enough money to maintain
the flawed system they have.
We have to work with what we have.
Well, this is all the people.
Connie Walker: Russell Harper has been trying for
decades to get everyone in the community piped water.
All of it down.
Connie Walker: No more pails.
No more cisterns.
But so far, their hopes have fallen on deaf ears.
I guess they think what they provided is enough.
Connie Walker: The federal government is spending
$1.8 billion to end
boil water advisories on reserves.
Is this one running good?
Connie Walker: But that won't help the people
in Garden Hill.
The government says they don't see
an urgent need here.
The water from the treatment plant
is already safe to drink.
Andrew: What I'm doing here
is collecting my water sample.
Connie Walker: It was Andrew Flett's job
to make sure of it.
Andrew: Every day, Monday to Friday.
Also on the weekends, 24-7,
365 days of the year.
Wow.
There's no breaks, no holidays
when it comes to this job.
Connie Walker: But only half of the people
who live in Garden Hill get their water directly from
the water treatment plant.
Andrew isn't one of them.
He has a cistern at home
that has never been cleaned.
So to get drinking water, he comes here
to the community's only water fountain.
There's like a film that settles
at the bottom of every tank.
It's full of bacteria and you can get sick,
causes like diarrhea, eating problems,
and all that.
Have you gotten sick from the water?
Oh yes, we did a few years ago.
It was severe with my daughter and my wife,
because when they would eat,
they couldn't keep anything down.
Connie Walker: With so many barriers to access
safe drinking water, Zachary knows that some
people watching from their comfortable homes
down south might wonder why he stays.
Because this is home.
No matter how bad things are,
or how people look at it and view it.
This is home not only because of the beauty,
not only of the history,
but as a community,
we choose to make this our home.
[wind blows softly]