{"id":101224,"date":"2026-01-19T08:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=101224"},"modified":"2026-01-19T08:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:53:08","slug":"few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\/","title":{"rendered":"Few hundred people remain in Kashechewan as water crisis force evacuations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Maan Alhmidi Only a few hundred people remain in a northern Ontario First Nation community after failures of local water supply and sewage systems forced many to evacuate their homes. Kashechewan First Nation\u2019s executive director Tyson Wesley said about 400 people will be left in the 2,200-member community by Sunday. Officials at the fly-in community that&#8217;s located on the western shore of James Bay declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4 after infrastructure damage had created an urgent public health and safety issue, with sewage creeping into people&#8217;s homes and contaminating fresh water systems. &#8220;I think four planes are flying out today, and we&#8217;ve been getting five to six planes a day,&#8221; Wesley said in an interview on Saturday. &#8220;We had issues with the sewage infrastructure and the&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F19%2Ffew-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Maan Alhmidi Only a few hundred people remain in a northern Ontario First Nation community after failures of local water supply and sewage systems forced many to evacuate their homes. Kashechewan First Nation\u2019s executive director Tyson Wesley said about 400 people will be left in the 2,200-member community by Sunday. Officials at the fly-in community that&#8217;s located on the western shore of James Bay declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4 after infrastructure damage had created an urgent public health and safety issue, with sewage creeping into people&#8217;s homes and contaminating fresh water systems. &#8220;I think four planes are flying out today, and we&#8217;ve been getting five to six planes a day,&#8221; Wesley said in an interview on Saturday. &#8220;We had issues with the sewage infrastructure and the... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F01%2F19%2Ffew-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Few hundred people remain in Kashechewan as water crisis force evacuations - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Few hundred people remain in Kashechewan as water crisis force evacuations - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Maan Alhmidi Only a few hundred people remain in a northern Ontario First Nation community after failures of local water supply and sewage systems forced many to evacuate their homes. Kashechewan First Nation\u2019s executive director Tyson Wesley said about 400 people will be left in the 2,200-member community by Sunday. Officials at the fly-in community that&#8217;s located on the western shore of James Bay declared a state of emergency on Jan. 4 after infrastructure damage had created an urgent public health and safety issue, with sewage creeping into people&#8217;s homes and contaminating fresh water systems. &#8220;I think four planes are flying out today, and we&#8217;ve been getting five to six planes a day,&#8221; Wesley said in an interview on Saturday. &#8220;We had issues with the sewage infrastructure and the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/19\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-19T13:53:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Few hundred people remain in Kashechewan as water crisis force evacuations\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-19T13:53:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":599,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/01\\\/19\\\/few-hundred-people-remain-in-kashechewan-as-water-crisis-force-evacuations\\\/\",\"name\":\"Few hundred people remain in Kashechewan as water crisis force evacuations - 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