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One of Saskatchewan's most far-flung settlements is inching closer to clean drinking water.

Uranium City residents hope the promised improvements to the community's water treatment plant are closer to reality, but progress is slow, noted Dean Classen, who is chair of the northern settlement's board.

In 2001, the provincial Water Security Agency handed a precautionary drinking water advisory to the small community near the Northwest Territories border. An emergency boil water advisory has been in place since 2015.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been fighting this for a long time,鈥� Classen said.

As of March, the Ministry of Government Relations was still searching for $1.7 million to fix the community鈥檚 water woes, Saskatchewan鈥檚 provincial Auditor Judy Ferguson noted in a report released on Tuesday.

The ministry has engaged an engineering firm, and is seeking federal-provincial infrastructure funding, the report said.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if this is actually going to come to light or (if) we actually have the money,鈥� noted Classen, who estimated the community has been waiting for funding for about a decade.聽

In addition to a lack of consistent testing, Uranium City doesn鈥檛 have 鈥渕inimum water treatment processes, and there is inadequate disinfection residual in the distribution system with E.coli detected in the drinking water system,鈥� the report said.

One other northern settlement, Brabant Lake in the northeast, is slated for water treatment upgrades.

In 2018, the Water Security Agency issued a precautionary drinking water advisory to the community, where the auditor鈥檚 report counts 27 dwellings being served.

In 2020, the Ministry drilled two new ground wells to help resolve the water issues. In March, it awarded a contract for about $115,000 to upgrade the small settlement鈥檚 water systems and expects work to be done by the end of June, the report said.

The final stage aims to further upgrade the water treatment plant for $1 million, to be completed by 2022.

There are also lingering issues of inconsistent water testing, which the province attributed to 鈥渉uman error and travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic,鈥� the report said.

It found the ministry didn鈥檛 always notify the water agency of 鈥渁bnormal鈥� test results like low chlorine levels in Wollaston Lake and Uranium City 鈥� on top of the community鈥檚 long wait.

Given Uranium City鈥檚 remote location, 鈥渢hings don鈥檛 happen fast,鈥� Classen said.