Some Cowichan Tribes homes get clean drinking water for the first time
Global News
Members Cowichan Tribes have lived along Indian Road since the 1940s, but have not had potable water in that time, despite being just two kilometres from the City of Duncan.
After decades of waiting, some residents of a Vancouver Island First Nation have clean drinking water hooked up for the first time.
Members of Cowichan Tribes have lived along Indian Road since the 1940s, but have not had potable water in that time, despite being just two kilometres from the City of Duncan.
On Friday, people living in 20 of those properties finally saw that change.
“It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure,” Cowichan Tribes member Amita Seymour told Global News.
“It was unbelievable for me; I got pretty choked up about (it). It was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe it — we can drink water from our own tap,’” added member Bubba Qwulshemut.
Qwulshemut has relied on either well water or bottle water his entire life, including three decades in Cowichan, raising his family.
He said the water plumbed into the house fizzed “like pop” when it came out of the tap, and was only suitable for doing laundry or bathing — and even then, only on good days.
His daughter Adrienne Peter, now grown, has been raising her children under the same conditions.