The problems of contaminated drinking water on the Kashechewan First Nation are hardly new. After all, the reserve has been under a boil-water order for more than two years and says it's had problems with its water for the better part of eight years.

So why is so much of Canada just learning about the problem now?

That's what native leaders would like to know.

They say that several federal agencies as well as the Ontario government have long been aware about deficiencies at the water treatment plant at the reserve. Yet nothing has been done.

The first alarm was sounded back in 2001, when an Indian and Northern Affairs Canada study found that three-quarters of 740 water treatment systems across the country posed a safety risk to the drinking water.

Then in 2003, the Ontario Clean Water Agency released a major report calling Kashechewan "a Walkerton-in-waiting."

The report noted that:

• the intake pipe for Kashechewan's water treatment plant was installed downstream from a sewage lagoon;
• staff at the plant didn't have enough training to manage their own water treatment; and
• there was a lack of government inspections.

A copy of the report was reportedly sent to the federal government. Yet nothing was done.

Disturbing photos of skin conditions

The situation escalated last week, when Kashechewan residents were warned to stop using their water altogether due to high levels of E. coli in the water supply -- the same bacteria that killed seven people in Walkerton five years ago.

But New Democrat MP Charlie Angus says action should have been taken long before it reached this crisis.

"This has been out of sight and out of mind for most Canadians," he told Canada AM Tuesday. The Timmins-James Bay MP called the lack of action "systematic negligence."

"Building the water treatment plant 150 yards downstream from a sewage lagoon put the citizens of Kashechewan at risk," Angus said in a statement this week. "The government knew of the risks. They knew of numerous instances of fecal coli form, giarda, cryptosporidium and yet chose not to act."

NDP MPP Gilles Bisson it's not just the feds who are to blame. He says the Ontario government was aware of the situation and did not intervene after the OCWA report was released.

"The province knew what problems existed. They knew that INAC was not responding to the threat facing the community. They had a responsibility to protect the lives of Ontario citizens and yet, they chose not to act," Bisson said.

David Ramsay, the Ontario minister responsible for native affairs, says that after Premier Dalton McGuinty saw pictures of children on the reserve suffering from skin infections, he took immediate action by declaring an emergency and ordering an evacuation.

But Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton says that's not good enough. He says Ontario Minister of Community Safety Monte Kwinter toured Kashechewan with community leaders back in April, recognized that living conditions were deplorable, yet took no action.

"Why did the McGuinty government ignore these people, residents of Ontario, who were in a desperate situation?" he asked McGuinty in the provincial legislature this week. 

"Why did you ignore them six months ago, and suddenly, you recognize now, when it's on the front pages, that you have a responsibility to do something?"

Kashechewan not unique

Grand Chief Stan Beardy of the Nishnawbe-Aski First Nations, a group of 49 reserves in northern Ontario, says Kashechewan is not unique. He says most of his group's reserves have the same kind of dirty water that all have water treatment plants in desperate need of repair.

As well, another 50 or so reserves across the country have similar problems and are under boil-water advisories.

Beardy says part of the problem is that most of the plants, built by the federal government, weren't designed to serve the number of residents now living on the reserves. Forcing the treatment plants to constantly run at capacity causes them to fail, he says.

Indian Affairs Minister Andy Scott insists the federal government has not been unaware of the problems of dirty water on native reserves. He says that's why in 2003 it initiated a $1.6-billion, five-year plan to improve water services.

And he notes that the federal government has been airlifting in bottled water to Kashechewan.

Stan Louttit, Grand Chief for the James Bay Cree, which includes the Kashechewan reserve, calls bottled water a band-aid solution.

"That's not good enough. Would you accept that in your community? Why has this community had to live with this for the past couple of years?"

Assembly of First Nations Chief Phil Fontaine estimates that $5 billion more is needed to improve living conditions for aboriginals. He points out that there are 100 First Nations reserves across Canada under boil-water advisories. All of them, he says, are brewing tragedies.