It was a historic week for the Semiahmoo First Nation, with the signing of a pair of service agreements that will hook the band’s residents up to Surrey’s water and sanitary sewer network.
READ MORE: Semiahmoo First Nation to have safe drinking water
It’s only been a 40-year wait.
According to Chief Harley Chappell, connecting to Surrey was a process started by the late Grand Chief Bernard Charles in the 1970s.
SFN re-invigorated those efforts two years ago, after the City of White Rock gave notice that service from the seaside city may be terminated.
The fact that clean, reliable water is out of reach for anyone, really, can be difficult for residents of the Western world to fathom, but that it has been an issue for so long for a community of people on the Semiahmoo Peninsula – particularly the representatives and heirs of the original inhabitants of this area – is atrocious.
The reserve has been on a boil-water advisory for about two decades, and about half of those who call the waterfront lands home have had to get their water trucked in.
To even imagine enjoying a cool glass of it was simply out of the question.
In 2010, the UN agreed to a resolution declaring access to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation” a human right.
It’s a right that, for whatever reason, the Se-mi-ah-ma have been denied.
History can point to many factors that have delayed this vital development. Perhaps it’s wiser – in our determination to move ahead – not to belabour them. Suffice it to say that the ways of the past did not serve the nation well.
In essence, we’ve just hit a reset button – what happens next is what counts.
The actions of the City of Surrey and Indigenous Services Canada in enabling the service agreement are commendable, but really they only represent an instance of government bodies doing the right thing.
It’s tempting to call this a step forward for the Se-mi-ah-ma, and, indeed, it is a necessary component for a brighter future for the nation. But how much of a step forward is a step that draws a community even with what others take for granted?
In the big picture, safe water for SFN is less about progress – and much more about redress.