Winnipeg water handout highlights Shoal Lake First Nation woes

Some Winnipeggers were at Portage and Main Thursday afternoon handing out bottled water hoping to use this city's water woes to draw attention to a long-standing problem with water safety for the Shoal Lake First Nation No. 40. The community is located near the source of Winnipeg's drinking water.

Winnipeg was intoday two of a boil water advisory Thursday.Shoal Lake First Nation No. 40's boil water advisory is 6,205 days and counting that's more than 17 years.

Winnipegger Monique Woroniakhanded out bottles of water because she wanted to help educate people in the city about the plight of the remote First Nation.

Woroniaksaid Shoal Lake FN's situation is something all Winnipeggers can relate to now.

"So the water, where Winnipeg gets its drinking water from is not accessible to the people living right in that community and Ithink it's something all Winnipeggers can relate to, especially over the last 36 hours or so. But even just on a human to human level that this is just hugely hypocritical and not just", Woroniak told CBC News.

Woroniak has never been under a boil water advisory before.

"It's hugely inconvenient. I was just astonished at how much water I waste on a daily basis," she said. "How quickly those bottles of water that we bought, how quickly they went. It definitely puts perspective on the situation people in Shoal Lake are facing and in other First Nations communities in Manitoba. I can't imagine doing this day in and day out."

Shoal Lake First Nation No. 40 spends about $250,000a year to bring in clean water. They want to build a water treatment plant, but need a permanent road into the community in Northwestern Ontario.