In one of the poignant scenes in Nevil Shute’s novel, A Town Like Alice, Jean Paget returns to the Malaysian village of Kuala Telang that had sheltered her and other English women during their years as Japanese prisoners during the Second World War. Paget had inherited money after the war and wants to provide the village with a fresh-water well to make life easier, especially for its women.

Paget knew, though, that she couldn’t simply impose her “thankoffering” on the village. The proposal had to be first accepted by the women and then approved by leader Mat Amin and the male elders. She assured the villagers that “everything was in their hands,” especially where the well and washhouse were to be located.

Paget also understood that any decision could not be hurried. She patiently waited two days before it was decided that “the well would be a good thing to have.” Paget may have been paying for the well, but it belonged to the village.

Canada’s First Nations could use someone such as Jean Paget to deal with the potable water problem in many reserve communities. Indeed, in the First Nations Clean Water Act (Bill........

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