Chris Alcantara knows it will take more than government funding to address the water crisis in Canada’s Indigenous communities. The money is important, sure. But building a collaborative relationship with Indigenous communities is what will build the foundation for future water infrastructure, he said.
Chris Alcantara knows it will take more than government funding to address the water crisis in Canada’s Indigenous communities. The money is important, sure. But building a collaborative relationship with Indigenous communities is what will build the foundation for future water infrastructure, he said.
“Water is a basic human right and it continues to be an intractable problem. Part of the problem is, the focus and the solutions people have been trying to propose, while important, have missed important components,” explained the Political Science professor.
“People always want the federal and provincial governments to provide money and regulations, and these are important things, for sure. We need to fix the facilities and get better technology. Again, this is important, but there are alternative things, too.”
One alternative is nurturing a collaborative relationship between First Nations communities and municipalities towards the goal of implementing water-sharing agreements. To this end, Alcantara, together with a team of researchers from Guelph University, recently received $371,300 from the Insight Grants program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
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Image via Western University.
