Indigenous Water Security and Social Determinants of Health in the Canadian Context
Water security is a pressing issue affecting every citizen of our increasingly urbanized, globalized, world. In Canada, the reality is that Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by water insecurity. This literature review approaches Indigenous water insecurity, in the Canadian context, as a social problem and examines the problem from various perspectives (critical legal theory, social and public health policy, and environmental studies) in order to convey current academic knowledge of this issue, theoretical contributions to the understanding of the issue, and some methods and precautions proposed by scholars to facilitate a resolution to this urgent problem.
Sarkar, Hanrahan, and Hudson explore “water insecurity, coping strategies and associated health risks in a small and isolated sub-Arctic Indigenous…community in Canada” (1) in their original research paper; Water insecurity in Canadian Indigenous communities : some inconvenient truths (2015). Their research, which combined convenience sampling surveys, in-depth, open-ended interviews, and “physical, chemical, and microbiological” (1) sampling of the participant community’s water sources, concluded that the community’s lack of access to piped water supply and basic sanitation infrastructure was putting “the community at risk of multiple serious adverse health outcomes” (2). This study calls for more of its kind as the researchers identified that the conditions that the participant community were facing were “not unique in Canada” (2) and that “many remote Indigenous communities fac[e]…similar kinds of water insecurity” (2). In addition to identifying cases of water source contamination and barriers to access for the community, this research also ties the community’s coping strategies (water conservation, recycling, and masking of brown cast water with high-sugar beverages) to their increased likelihood of experiencing serious adverse health outcomes. The paper additionally associates “mental stress” (8) and “a sense of helplessness” (8) with water insecurity in the participant community and points to the need for a “multidimensional picture of the dynamics of water insecurity and population vulnerability” (9) to generate potential solutions. Finally, the researchers also make the claim that the the provision of “safe drinking water [for all communities in Canada] would have far-reaching benefits” (11) and is therefor worth further investigation “at the national level [to gain] more in-depth information” (10).
Lam et al. provide a preliminary look at the way that the topic of water insecurity in Indigenous communities is portrayed in Canadian newspapers with the intention to “provide insight into the ways in which public perceptions are shaped, with potential implications for [social and political] decision-making and action” (1). For the purpose of this study, the researchers conducted systematic searching and screening of “newspaper articles published from 2000 to 2015 in Canadian newspapers : Windspeaker, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and National Post [which enabled them to produce] descriptive quantitative analysis and thematic qualitative analysis on relevant articles to characterize framing and trends in coverage.” (1) The researchers note a growing body of research on this topic, but lament a persistent “deficit in studies examining risk perceptions of Indigenous water issues among Indigenous peoples and the general public” (2). In response to this deficit, they argue that “[e]xamining risk perceptions [is valuable because it] can provide insight into understanding risk-averting behaviour and [help to inform] management strategy” (2). The study also outlines problems with the quality and levels of coverage of Indigenous issues in Canadian news media and suggests that this is “potentially leading the public to have an incomplete, or inadequate picture of the larger issues at play – or, the issues [which] are excluded from media coverage all together” (2). The researcher’s observations led them to recommend that more “peer-reviewed literature on Inuit or Metis water-related health issues” (10) be composed and that water-related health issues be “studied further, and regularly compiled and reported to the public” (10) in order to correct and clarify public ignorance and misunderstanding, respectively, regarding the vitally important “contextual background information…and insights into voice representations” (10) of Indigenous Canadians which are appearing increasingly often in Canadian newspaper articles.
Murdocca further elaborates on this issue by examining “connections between race, nationalism, and legal violence” and “explor[ing] the ways in which biopolitical forms of racial governance require an analysis that link… legal violence and structural violence to historical and symbolic forms of representation” (369) in her article : “There Is Something in That Water” : Race, Nationalism, and Legal Violence (2010). Murdocca analyzes the issue of Indigenous water insecurity in Canada from a critical legal theory perspective and “links processes of [nation-building and] racialization with environmental justice” (371) calling for a more historically contextualized view of legislation involving the water security of Indigenous communities of Canada. She “draw[s] on the example of the water crisis in one northern Ontario community in order to outline and address the ongoing story of colonization in Canada” and present water insecurity in Indigenous communities as a direct result of colonial policies and legislation. Murdocca stresses the importance of “narratives about a water crisis…in defining the racial and structural violence that is constitutive of colonial projects” (396) and uses the “Kashechewan crisis” as evidence of the “material reality of ongoing colonialism…organized through a number of political rationalities” (396). Murdocca admits the limitations of taking a case study approach to “track[ing] ongoing colonialism and forms of racial governance” (373), but argues that “to suggest that this is an exceptional crisis [would be false and] obfuscates the histories that produced it” (374). Murdocca’s paper provides excellent insight into the history of Canada’s colonial history, the biopolitical underpinnings of this history and the present reality, and urges Canadians to “think more critically about the connection between historical injustices, national narratives, and contemporary racism” (397).
Both Richmond and Cook and Pawar respond to the framing of water insecurity in Indigenous communities as a socio-political issue by establishing the need for systemic change to allow for the development and implementation of “healthy public policy” to address the issue. Both scholarly articles “draw upon the concept of reconciliation as a fundamental precursor for Aboriginal health equity”. Richmond and Cook insist that ensuring water security for all Canadians is a “shared responsibility…requir[ing] the collaboration and integration of various actors and knowledges” (1) and point to a “distinct absence of Canadian policy supporting Aboriginal health and well-being at the national and provincial levels” (2) as one of many reasons that “troubling patterns of health including a high [incidence] of chronic and infectious diseases” (2) continue to be disproportionately affect Indigenous communities. Pawar aims her article, Water Insecurity : A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers (2016), at engaging social workers in the effort to “explore the nature and scope of water insecurity as a global social work issue” (248) in order to design a “framework for social policy action by social workers” (248) based on a well-researched understanding of the “complex nature of the water insecurity issue and its consequences, particularly on the poor and disadvantaged groups, and on ecosystems” (248) in order to reduce systemic social inequality.
Kot, Castleden, and Gagnon approach water-related issues from a public health and safety planning perspective and study them through the lens of the environmental sciences. Their paper; The human dimension of water safety plans: a critical review of literature and information gaps (2014), argues that “safe drinking water is a cornerstone of community health and well-being, making it a critical, political, economic, environment, and human health objective.” The article recommends the implementation of water safety plans which “present a risk-based, proactive framework for water management, and when properly implemented, virtually eliminate… the option for complacency” which the researchers state has been a major obstacle for previous efforts. This paper focusses on practical techniques for the implementation of a healthy water safety plan, involving “a comprehensive assessment of present and potential risks throughout a water supply…and the development of a plan for reducing these risks to an acceptable level.”, but makes no specific mention of Indigenous water security. What it does explicitly state however is that “policy, regardless of intent, is influenced by the social, political, and economic context in which it is applied. Communities that lack the capacity to devote resources – including human and economic resources – require more than economic support to facilitate policy uptake” stating that an “internal shift in attitudes, motivation, and beliefs” must occur for any water safety plan to have longevity. They recommend assessing “community readiness” before implementing any policies and delaying the implementation of any policies until “community readiness” is achieved. The article refers to this approach as “yet untested” and suggested that future studies could conduct trials and explore further to assess its effectiveness and reliability.
All six articles explored in this literature review provide insight into the issue of water insecurity in Indigenous communities of Canada. The review has briefly investigated the social dimensions of this issue and covered some contemporary research working on understanding and seeking a resolution to the problem which all of the authors agreed is urgently needed. One common theme amongst all the articles was the need for more peer-reviewed literature on the topic of water security. The authors were careful to specify that future research should be historically contextualized, culturally sensitive, and should aim to address the socio-political underpinnings of this complex issue. What all the authors also seem to agree upon is the need for a dramatic systemic change to facilitate the reconciliation of Indigenous peoples and the Canadian government and to facilitate the resolution of legislated social violence and inequality by means of sustainable social and public health policy implementation.
Works Cited :
Kot, Megan, et al. “The Human Dimension of Water Safety Plans: A Critical Review of Literature and Information Gaps.” Environmental Reviews, vol. 23, no. 1, Mar. 2015, pp. 24-29. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1139/er-2014-0030.
Lam, Steven, et al. “How Does the Media Portray Drinking Water Security in Indigenous Communities in Canada? An Analysis of Canadian Newspaper Coverage from 2000-2015.” BMC Public Health, vol. 17, 27 Mar. 2017, pp. 1-14. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4164-4.
Murdocca, Carmela. ““There Is Something in That Water”: Race, Nationalism, and Legal Violence.” Law & Social Inquiry, vol. 35, no. 2, Spring2010, pp. 369-402. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/j.1747-4469.2010.01189.x.
Pawar, Manohar. “Water Insecurity: A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers.” Australian Social Work, vol. 66, no. 2, June 2013, pp. 248-260. EBSCOhost, doi: 10.1080/0312407X.2013.777969.
Richmond, Chantelle A. M. and Catherine Cook. “Creating Conditions for Canadian Aboriginal Health Equity: The Promise of Healthy Public Policy.” Public Health Reviews (2107-6952), vol. 37, no. 1, Jan. 2016, pp. 1-16. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1186/ s40985-016-0016-5.
Sardar, A., Hanrahan, M., and Hudson, A. “Water insecurity in Canadian Indigenous communities : some inconvenient truths.” Rural and Remote Health. 15: 3354. (Online) 2015