Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.
Water is essential to human life. SDG 6 targets sustainable, universal, and equitable access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Researchers from EUC are investigating issues in clean water supply, boil water advisories, and learning with Indigenous leaders in water governance.
Zaagtoonaa Nibi - We Love the Water
Deborah McGregor is at the forefront of Indigenous environmental justice research in diverse contexts, including water justice and governance. Her most recent publication, “Zaagtoonaa Nibi (We Love the Water): Anishinaabe community-led research on water governance and protection”, supports Indigenous water governance, leadership and security. Understanding our relationships with, and responsibilities to water are integral for more sustainable and just water-systems.
Water crisis in Neskantaga First Nation and Ontario's Ring of Fire
York Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice, Dayna Scott, examines the public health crises associated with water contamination in First Nations communities. Crises have plagued the Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario, which has experienced a 26-year boil water advisory, and several evacuations. EUC researchers in socio-legal studies and critical geography have been working in partnership with Neskantaga leadership in support of their inherent jurisdiction to govern their homelands in accordance with Indigenous legal order.
Novel approaches to restoring Indigenous governing authority over lands and waterways
Dayna Nadine Scott’s project on Infrastructure Beyond Extractivism: Material Approaches to Restoring Indigenous Jurisdiction supports Indigenous land defenders across several bioregions who are working to build up and restore vital infrastructures in their territories. Scott’s project continues in partnership with Neskantaga First Nation which is launching a new youth-focused Lake Sturgeon Stewardship program, Namekaa Gaagige, in the face of extractive pressures in the Attawapiskat River watershed due to the proposed development of the Ring of Fire. The project aims to generate insights about the relationship between infrastructure and jurisdiction, and to evaluate strategies for reclaiming and restoring Indigenous jurisdiction over lands and waters through the generation of vital infrastructures against extractivism.
Predicting riverbeds in Nigeria using machine learning algorithms and ‘eyes in the air’
Adeyemi Olusola is a river catchment scientist with a strong focus on river dynamics and human impacts on river catchments, as well as extreme events and reach-scale classifications. He is a physical geographer with a special interest in fluvial geomorphology and ecohydrology as well as GIS/remote sensing. His study on River sensing: Inclusion of red band to predict reach-scale types using machine learning algorithms aims to understand the role of satellite sensors in predicting riverbeds using machine learning algorithms (MLAs).
Understanding Anishinaabek G'giikendaaswinmin (knowledge) on N'bi (water) in the Great Lakes Territory for Water Governance
PhD alumna Sue Chiblow’s research on N’bi Kendaaswin (Water Knowledge) focuses on three sub-themes: water governance and gender; Anishinaabek laws; and reconciliation and relationships with water. Her work is directly related to environmental justice for Anishinaabek Peoples and to the revitalization of Anishinaabek law. She has been instrumental in the development of the Water Declaration of the First Nations in Ontario. The Declaration lists articles on First Nations relationships to the waters; conditions of our waters; the right of water and self-determination and; right to waters and treaties.
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