‘The world is running out of water,’ says water expert from Six Nations, Ont. | 24CA News

The world is “running out of water,” Makasa Looking Horse says, and if we do not take motion quickly, it will likely be too late.

Looking Horse, from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, is among the hosts of the Ohneganos Ohnegahdę:gyo – Let’s Talk about Water podcast, which received a 2021 David Suzuki Foundation Future Ground Prize. The prize acknowledges youth-led actions.

It’s a podcast created, the Suzuki Foundation says, to “engage Indigenous communities and disseminate research findings by facilitating meaningful discussion about water issues and climate change.” 

Looking Horse factors to Aberfoyle, Ont., the place BlueTriton Brands, Inc., an American beverage firm primarily based in Connecticut, has permits to take 3.6 million litres of water a time out of an aquifer there. BlueTriton is the brand new title of the large company higher often called Nestlé Waters North America. The title was modified to BlueTriton Brands in 2021.

She says “they’re making millions off our water and selling it. And the thing about aquifer waters that it takes six [thousand] to 10,000 years for that water to filter through the ground. We’ll never see that water within our lifetime again and that’s why it’s so important that we stop water extraction.” 

The factor about aquifer waters that it takes six to 10,000 years for that water to filter via the bottom. We’ll by no means see that water inside our lifetime once more.– Makasa Looking Horse 

BlueTriton says, in a report from November 2021, that it has carried out “extensive testing and studies over the years to ensure that their operations do not diminish the availability of water for other users or the environment.”

The firm says “permit conditions require BlueTriton to monitor the natural and pumping-related variations in groundwater and surface water levels.” The allow was renewed by the Ontario authorities in 2021 and runs till November 2026.

By 2025, 1.8 billion folks will reside with water shortage: report 

Looking Horse’s dedication to defending water was handed down from her dad and mom.

Her mom is Dawn Martin-Hill, one of many founders of the Indigenous research program at McMaster University and the winner of the University of Oklahoma’s International Water Prize, for her dedication to enhancing water safety for the folks of the Six Nations of the Grand River.

Her father is Chief Arvol Looking Horse, nineteenth Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe. He was given the duty at age 12, the youngest keeper in historical past.

She says her path into activism and water sovereignty did not occur in a single day. It was an extended and encompassing journey stuffed with ardour for earth, prayer for water and every part on earth. 

Similar to Looking Horse, the United Nations (UN) additionally has considerations about how a lot water people can entry.

According to a UN report, by 2025 1.8 billion folks shall be dwelling in nations or areas with absolute water shortage, and two thirds of the world’s inhabitants could possibly be dwelling underneath “water stressed conditions.” 

Looking Horse has additionally realized from elder Gae Ho Hwako Norma Jacobs. Jacobs is from the Wolf clan within the Cayuga Nation of the Great Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a Longhouse Faith Keeper, and an adviser to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

“I think its important for all of us to be supportive of the care of mother earth and the water and the air as they are all participants of our life,” Jacobs says.

“We need all of those things to live a decent life. Our walk here on turtle Island has always been complimented by those elements. We are supposed to be listening to everyone’s need and the future belongs to our children and their children and their children. We should be leaving an environment that their able to live their dreams and flourish.”

‘This is just one instance’

In June of 2019, Looking Horse hand delivered a stop and desist letter from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council to Nestlé Waters in Aberfoyle.

In 2021, the council despatched one other letter to BlueTriton, after the corporate modified its title, saying “the majority of our people at Six Nations do not have access to clean drinking water… we declare your activities to remove [aquifer] waters under our territories unpermitted and demand that you cease your activity immediately.” 

CBC News requested BlueTriton for a remark in response to the council’s calls for, however didn’t hear again.

The struggle for water sovereignty and for clear consuming water continues for Looking Horse.

“The urgency worldwide is huge because the world is running out of water. This is only one example of exploitative extraction by a big corporation. This doesn’t include all of the pollution and micro plastics that are living in waterways and systems across the globe,” she mentioned. 

“I’ve been praying for water and working with water for a very long time, and that’s where it started,” she mentioned. 

“You start to learn how valuable water is on a spiritual level, but also on a statistic level. The world is really in a water crisis. So, it’s in our culture to protect the water and have a responsibility.”