“Canada’s leading charitable organization dedicated to working with Indigenous communities to address local water challenges through education, training, and meaningful collaboration”
— Water First
Who They Are
Water First believes that the water crisis faced by Indigenous communities in Canada is unacceptable. Water First embraces the idea of giving to where the need is greatest, especially when planning for the future and creating programs designed to meet the needs of the local community. Water First creates effective programs by talking and directly collaborating with Indigenous community members on all their projects.
“The national conversation around water challenges tends to focus on infrastructure. However, the challenges are much more complex then infrastructure alone…the local people working at water treatment plants are very important for sustaining safe and clean water. That’s why locally-based education and training programs that help build capacity are critical.”
— Mason Prout
(Communications and Development Specialist - Water First)
Indigenous Water Rights
Currently, 35% of First Nations communities in Ontario are under a drinking water advisory. Drinking water advisories are issued to warn people in the local area not to drink water from taps which may be unsafe or is known not to be safe based on water quality testing results. Drinking advisories in First Nations communities can affect one building or an entire community.
Many First Nations communities in Canada have expressed the need for certified personnel to operate and maintain drinking water treatment systems installed in their community. Water First addresses this need by creating programs designed specifically for each Indigenous community, reflecting their commitment to listening and respecting the opinions of their community partners.
Want to develop a greater understanding of the water challenges facing many Indigenous communities in Canada?
What they do
Water First provides education and skills training for Indigenous community members. They believe appropriate access to technical training to be essential in creating long-term solutions that effectively work for local communities. Water First works to provide Indigenous partners with the certifications they need to effectively manage water health in their local ecosystems.
To date, Water First has collaborated with:
Indigenous communities across Canada on…
co-created water science training and education programs
Current Projects
-
Drinking Water Program
Sustainable access to safe, clean water in Indigenous communities continues to be an issue in Canada. Technology alone does not provide clean and reliable drinking water: the people who run the systems are essential. The Drinking Water Internship Program supports young Indigenous adults to become certified water treatment plant operators.
-
Environmental Water Program
Water First supports the vision of Indigenous-led land management. The Environmental Water Program firstly involves consulting Indigenous partners on their long-term environmental water goals. By understanding the goals of the community, Water First designs a custom training program related to: fish habitat restoration, water quality monitoring, mapping, and data management.
-
Indigenous Schools Water Program
Water First recognizes the profound underrepresentation of Indigenous voices in Canada’s water governance. Water First offers Indigenous students the most impassioned, empowering and exciting Water Science education learning opportunities possible. These programs create opportunities for students to strengthen their understanding and relationship with the environment.
Collaborative Decision-making
At all stages of their work, Water First incorporates knowledge exchanges, feedback loops, and evaluation points: starting from identifying community goals, to delivering programs, and beyond. By following a collaborative decision-making framework, Water First ensures the training and educational needs of their partner communities are met with the greatest potential and have lasting results. Water First holds themselves accountable to the communities they partner with, building strong and long-lasting connections.
“Students get to see people in their communities doing really cool work…we hope to inspire a love for water science and get youth interested in water and pursuing careers in water science”
— Mason Prout
(Communications and Development Specialist - Water First)
Connection to Clean Technology
Water First is a charitable organization focused on understanding and addressing the water challenges that many Indigenous communities in Canada face through a combination of education, technical skills training, and clean technology. Clean technology (cleantech) includes technologies that either reduce environmental impact or generate environmental benefits. These challenges relate to limited accessibility for water treatment education and training, as well as insufficient support for water quality testing. Water First is actively addressing these concerns through initiatives such as the Drinking Water Internship Program and the Environmental Water Program, which implement clean technologies.
The Drinking Water Internship is a 15-month program where participants learn how to operate water treatment technologies. The Internship includes over 2000 hours of on-site water treatment plant training to prepare participants to take certified exams. During the internships, participants learn how to use technologies like colorimeters to test for the concentration of Free and Total Chlorine in a water sample, and turbidity meters to measure water cloudiness.
Video Outlining Drinking Water Internship Program
Water First uses cleantech methods in their Environmental Water Program to understand how community water bodies and aquatic species that reside in these water bodies, are changing with upstream landscape changes. An example of projects a part of Water First's Environmental Water Program include First Nations communities that have resided in an area for multiple generations and suddenly encountered an environmentally degradative industry that had begun large-scale operations nearby. The Environmental Water Program supports communities like these to stay informed on how their water quality is changing due to the industry's operations by assisting with the development of baseline water quality monitoring programs. A primary concern for many communities involved in the Environmental Water Program is increased mercury levels within fish populations, as fishing is a significant food source for many communities. Moreover, understanding fish mercury levels is essential for the health and well-being of these communities. In the Environmental Water Program, Water First uses cleantech to help communities take basic water measurements like pH, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and temperature using a multi-parameter tool.
Video Outlining Environmental Water Program
Across these two programs, Water First is using clean technology in combination with pre-existing Indigenous historical knowledge about the watershed and precipitation patterns to support communities in gaining long-term access to clean water and developing a deeper understanding of terrestrial water sources. Ultimately, Water First emphasizes the integral role of people in utilizing clean technologies to benefit communities long-term through access and education, while demonstrating how these technologies can uplift people and the environment.
To date, Water First has supported:
Graduates of the Internship Program
Certifications achieved through the Internship Program
Workshops delivered to
school-aged Indigenous youth
Want to help support a solution that helps Indigenous communities address water challenges?
