'Kids play in raw sewage' at Granville Lake

More than 50 protesters from Granville Lake arrived in Thompson Thursday, armed with a state-of-emergency paper for the Northern Affairs department.

The protesters walked 200 kilometres from their remote community to Thompson to ask official to evacuate the town and have it declared unsafe for habitation under the Emergency Measures Act.

Protest leader Leslie Baker says the community's 90 residents are fed up with a leaky sewage system and frozen pipes.

"Just this past Sunday, when it warmed up you know how kids play in when there's puddles. The kids were playing in raw sewage, playing boats in raw sewage, and it's not fair to the kids," says protest leader Leslie Baker.

• March 26, 2003: Northerners protest water ordeal

Granville Lake Mayor William Anderson says Northern Affairs officials told him workers are thawing out the pipes in his community but he says the protesters are not going back home until the raw sewage on the ground is cleaned up.

Baker says they'll set up tents about 40 kilometres from Granville Lake, where he owns three hunting cabins.

Granville Lake is about 45 kilometers southeast of Leaf Rapids.