The Atikamekw community of Manawan, 250 km north of Montreal, is going on day five of a drinking water outage. School is cancelled, the regional health centre is closed, members are unable to bathe or use running water and elders are being evacuated in order to keep an ongoing COVID-19 outbreak at bay. In a press briefing held Monday, Manawan Chief Paul-Emile Ottawa explained the outage – which began on Sunday – could have devastating effects for the community of 2,500 if not rectified quickly.