The comments made by a Herald reader, in a Jan. 7 letter to the editor, make reference to an alleged lack of clean drinking water for members of the Blood Reserve.

It is unfortunate if that is the case for some households in the Blood Tribe community, and without a doubt, it is a human right to have access to clean drinking water as it is to say the same for clean air and food. It has been a concern for many years. The responsibility of funding the Tribe’s infrastructure for public works is a fiduciary responsibility of the federal government. In other areas, this would be the responsibility of municipal governments with funding from provincial sources. Provincial funding is not available to reserve communities.

The community has approximately 1,500 homes throughout the reserve; because of the poor water quality in the aquifers, water needs to be delivered to 1,000 homes. Blood Tribe Public Works have four water delivery trucks. According to statistics, on national average one truck per 45 cisterns is acceptable and in comparison, the Blood Tribe has one truck for every 250 cisterns.