Sandy Bay residents on the ridge area of the Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation are once again being asked to conserve water after the community’s water treatment plant ran into problems in early June, causing low water pressure.
The Sandy Bay Ojibway First Nation Community Services issued an urgent advisory around June 1, 2026, telling people the treatment plant is having trouble again. The advisory asks residents to fill their bathtubs for flushing toilets and to use as little water as possible while crews work on the issue. The low pressure is expected to hit homes on the ridge area especially hard.
This comes just days after the community was nearly back to full water flow following a dramatic pressure drop around May 29. At that time, residents were told not to fill swimming pools because the system could not handle the demand. The back-to-back advisories highlight ongoing struggles with the aging water system that serves about 4,909 people on the reserve.
The community has dealt with water problems for years. A boil water advisory was in place from January 12, 2026, after a loss of pressure in the system, and the existing treatment plant does not meet standards set by Indigenous Services Canada, Health Canada, or the Province of Manitoba. A new water treatment plant project has been in the works since 2019 and received federal approval in 2020, but it has not yet been built.
Sandy Bay is not alone. As of June 1, 2026, there were 34 short-term drinking water advisories in First Nations communities across Canada, according to Indigenous Services Canada. In December 2021, Canadian courts approved a landmark settlement requiring the federal government to spend at least $6 billion on water infrastructure for reserves.
