Wasagamack elder Sam Harper retrieves water from frozen Island Lake for his family. Photo courtesy of Joe Bryksa, Winnipeg Free Press

Researchers from the universities of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Brock, Saint-Boniface, Royal Roads, University College of the North, the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (northern chiefs) are working together to develop research projects related to water as a human right, with the goal of increasing access to clean running water and sewage facilities.

A total of 30 researchers, including professors from 10 U of M faculties (Law, Arts, Medicine, Engineering, Environment, Agriculture, Nursing, Science, Social Work and Business) and experts from the Public Interest Law Centre, the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources and the Assembly of First Nations, are engaged in the Water Rights Research Consortium.

1)   Dr. Brenda Elias is leading the group that will gather epidemiological and other data to demonstrate the health/social impacts of poor water access in Manitoba First Nations. She is also conducting a community health assessment in Indigenous communities in the Caribbean that includes questions about water and sanitation. The health working group will host a research planning symposium on water as a holistic health right in The Pas May 9-10, 2012.

2)   Dr. Katherine Starzyk (psychology) is leading a social justice research team developing partnerships with First Nations aimed at: 1) choosing effective advocacy strategies, including exploring what might make Canadians more empathetic to those living without clean running water; 2) assessing the economic impact of poor water services and 3) examining the legal basis of the human right to water. This group includes lawyers, filmmakers, economists, psychologists and social workers. 

3)   Dimos Polyzois (Engineering) hopes to expand his existing research project on health and housing on First Nations to include design of sustainable water and wastewater systems to improve the health of First Nations residents.

4)   Dr. Annemieke Farenhorst (soil science) would like to train high school students in Sapotaweyak Cree Nation to take their own water samples, then bring some of them to the university to conduct tests for trace elements like mercury, arsenic and uranium in Dr. Feiyue Wang's cutting-edge lab.

We have posted a selection of previous research by water rights consortium collaborators and a video interview with one of our collaborators on water as a human right. Academic-Indigenous partnerships involve special ethical considerations.

Researchers from the consortium attended the Keepers of the Water Conference in Lac Brochet and the Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak annual meeting in Pimicikamak Cree Nation in August 2011 to ask for input on our research direction. Pamphlets explaining our intentions and asking for advice were also handed out at the July 2011 Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs annual meeting in The Pas.

Dr. Katherine Starzyk (psychology) and Centre for Human Rights Research manager Helen Fallding, along with Jamie Harper and Kim Manoakeesik from St. Theresa Point, hosted a phone-in radio show in Island Lake Aug. 18, 2011, to ask local residents their ideas for research questions. 

This project was partly inspired by Helen's Winnipeg Free Press work in 2010 on the award-winning No Running Water series.

On Monday Oct. 17, 2011, the Centre for Human Rights Research hosted a forum on water policy lessons from the Northwest Territories, where the new water strategy explicitly recognizes water as a fundamental human right.