Kashechewan First Nation in northern Ontario plans to evacuate about 2,200 residents after failures in its water and wastewater systems left the community without reliable clean water. Sewage reached the basement of its nursing station, an influenza outbreak is circulating, and the community declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4.
A system more than 30 years old gives out
Kashechewan is a fly-in Cree community on the western shore of James Bay. In a news release, the First Nation said the water level in its system had dropped significantly, triggering an automatic shutdown meant to protect an already fragile plant from further damage.
The failures were not limited to drinking water. Pumps in the sewage lift stations have been failing in a system the community describes as overworked and now more than 30 years old. The result, the First Nation said, is an urgent public health and safety problem: sewage is entering people’s homes and contaminating fresh water systems.
There was no timeline for when normal water production would resume. In the meantime, potable water was being flown in for residents.
Chief and Council declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4, 2026. Nishnawbe Aski Nation, which represents the community, said the failure also flooded the nursing station — Kashechewan’s only health-care facility — with raw sewage, shut off running water, and left frozen pipes and frozen fire hydrants across the community despite efforts to winterize them. A temporary nursing station was operating at only about 40 per cent of the capacity required, with no diagnostic tools and no telecommunications link to doctors.
From the most vulnerable to the whole community
Executive director Tyson Wesley said the first plan was limited: evacuate only the most vulnerable residents, meaning people with medical conditions who face a higher risk of infection. That changed as the nursing station was compromised.
Chief Hosea Wesley told APTN News the turning point was the clinic itself. “When the clinic got flooded with sewer that’s when everything changes,” he said, adding that medical services had been breached and the smell of sewage was present as he spoke.
The community now hopes to relocate about 2,200 residents. Wesley said the province arranged one flight carrying 37 people to Timmins on Wednesday, while the community itself was working to arrange two more flights to urban centres in the south. “The government response has been inadequate,” he said, arguing that the community finding its own planes should not be happening.
Kashechewan said it was working with Indigenous Services Canada, the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre and Emergency Management Ontario, among others, and had asked whether the military could assist. Nishnawbe Aski Nation said Chief Hosea Wesley had also invited Indigenous Services Minister Mandy Gull-Masty to visit the community to see the conditions firsthand, and that no commitment to visit had been made at that point.
An influenza outbreak in the community is compounding the emergency. Without clean water, Wesley said, residents cannot bathe their babies, wash clothes or flush toilets when they need to, and people are tired of a crisis that is becoming a normal occurrence in the community.
A history the community knows too well
This is not Kashechewan’s first water evacuation. The community drew national attention in 2005, when E. coli contamination of its water supply prompted the evacuation of more than 800 people. About 200 residents were also evacuated in December 2024 because of problems at the water treatment plant. Separately, the community is forced to evacuate in most years because of spring flooding.
Nishnawbe Aski Nation and the community’s leadership say that history is the point. In a later statement, leaders pointed to the 2019 framework agreement signed with Canada and Ontario, known as Together We Work for Hope, which includes relocating the community to higher ground. Chief Hosea Wesley called on both governments to fast-track that relocation, saying there would be no more band-aid solutions in his community.
The weeks that followed showed how large the January evacuation became. By Feb. 4, more than 1,500 people had been evacuated to host communities across Ontario, including Timmins, Kapuskasing, Niagara Falls and Kingston, and about 370 people remained in Kashechewan. Testing had found cryptosporidium, a parasite that causes gastrointestinal illness, in the water system, and the remaining nursing staff had left the community, with health care for those who stayed routed through the hospital in neighbouring Fort Albany and Ornge air ambulance for emergencies.
