Larry Holiday delivers water by truck to Navajo families without it.

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STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.1, WHST.6-8.4, WHST.6-8.9, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.1, W.6-8.4, W.6-8.9, SL.6-8.1, SL.6-8.6

NCSS: Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Production, Distribution, and Consumption • Civic Ideals and Practices

THE BIG READ

U.S. Water Crisis

“Water Is Life”

Tens of thousands of Navajo people have never had running water in their homes, and it affects every aspect of their lives. Here’s how the Navajo Nation is working to solve the problem.

As You Read, Think About: Why is water such an important part of everyday life?

Growing up, Emma Robbins spent weekends at her grandparents’ house in Cameron, Arizona. Their home, on the Navajo Nation, did not have electricity, an indoor toilet, or even a working sink. 

That meant her grandparents frequently had to drive many miles to outdoor public faucets to collect water in plastic containers. They tried to make every drop last, portioning out what they needed for washing, cooking, and drinking. 

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

A woman fills bottles at a public faucet.

Robbins didn’t question what her grandparents had to go through to get water, even though her parents’ home, in a more populated area of the Navajo reservation just 30 miles away, had indoor plumbing. She knew that tens of thousands of Navajo families lived like her grandparents, without running water. 

“When you grow up on the reservation, you don’t see it as a problem, because so many of us don’t have it,” says Robbins, now 34. 

But when she moved to Chicago, Illinois, for college, Robbins was shocked. Water—the resource that her grandparents spent so much time trying to access and conserve—was abundant. An endless stream flowed on demand from every faucet. People didn’t seem to think twice about how much they used or where it came from.  

“I started to understand the injustice,” Robbins says. “It’s not OK to not have running water and electricity in your home in this day and age in one of the richest countries in world history.” 

What You Need to Know

Jason Connolly/AFP via Getty Images

A member of the Navajo Nation at an event in Denver, Colorado

Navajo Nation: One of the largest Native American nations formally recognized by the U.S. government, with about 300,000 members. The nation has its own government and constitution. The reservation on which it is situated is also called the Navajo Nation.

Tribal Government: An Indigenous government that operates separately from state and federal governments, including by making laws. A tribal government’s consent is needed for Congress to pass laws affecting its members, who are also U.S. citizens. 

Life Without Water

Yet today, at least 1 in 5 Navajo people—about 37,000 individuals—lack running water, according to the Navajo Nation Covid-19 Water Access Coordination Group. (Some experts put that estimate as high as 1 in 3.) Like Robbins’s grandparents, many have to travel long distances for water just to meet their basic needs. 

The situation takes a heavy mental and financial toll on families. People without running water constantly think about how much water they use, how much they have left, and how and where they will get more. Some must drive for hours to get it—weekly or even daily—so they end up spending a lot of money on gas. 

Cameron resident Shanna Yazzie drives 25 to 40 miles to get drinking water for her family of four. They use about 275 gallons of water a month. “We are very careful,” she says. “When we wash dishes, we use four to six cups of hot water, and we’ve learned how to take really quick showers.”

67

Number of times more likely Navajo are than other Americans to live without running water or a toilet

SOURCE: Navajo Water Project

Lack of running water is also a public health issue. Without it, people are more likely to rely on springs or ponds that haven’t been tested to ensure they’re safe to drink from. 

And during the Covid-19 pandemic, many Navajo people have been forced to gather in public places to get water, increasing their risk of getting sick. (More than 1,200 people on the reservation have died from Covid-19.) Moreover, handwashing with soap and water is one of the simplest ways to help prevent the spread of that and other diseases. But how can people even do that, Robbins points out, when they barely have water?

It’s a problem that she, her fellow Navajo members, and others are racing to solve. “Water is life,” Robbins says. “We need to start thinking about it that way.”

A History of Inequality

For many Americans, water seems like an endless resource. But more than 2 million people in the U.S. do not have running water or basic indoor plumbing (see “Understanding the U.S. Water Gap,” below).

Understanding

The U.S. Water Gap

Limited access to clean water does not affect just the Navajo Nation. Even though the U.S. is home to some of the most reliable water and wastewater systems on Earth, more than 2 million Americans live without running water and basic indoor plumbing. That’s according to a 2019 report by the U.S. Water Alliance and human rights nonprofit DigDeep.

Some of those Americans have never had running water in their homes. Others live in parts of the country with outdated or poorly maintained water infrastructure, or in areas where the water is not safe to drink. 

This water gap affects people in every state, particularly those in rural areas and lower-income communities. Black and Latinx households are twice as likely to lack access to water as white households, and Native American households are 19 times as likely, the report found. 

DigDeep and other nonprofits have been working to provide water to affected communities. And this past February, U.S. lawmakers reintroduced a water justice bill in Congress. Some legislators say the bill, which has been proposed in previous years, would help close the water gap—in part by devoting about $35 billion a year to making improvements to drinking water and wastewater systems. 

Navajo families are 67 times more likely than other Americans to live that way. One reason for the inequality is that Indigenous communities have long faced discrimination. When the U.S. government invested heavily in public water systems 100 years ago, for example, it excluded many poor, immigrant, and tribal communities.

Geography also plays a role, experts say. Most U.S. water systems are run by city or county water departments. The departments draw water from lakes, rivers, and groundwater. Then they test and treat the liquid to make it safe for consumption. Finally, they pump it into houses through a series of pipes known as water lines.

The more urban areas of the Navajo Nation are serviced this way. But much of the reservation, which spans parts of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah, is rugged and sparsely populated. Providing safe drinking water and basic sanitation in all homes on the 27,000-square-mile reservation would cost more than $700 million, according to the Indian Health Service (IHS), a U.S. government agency. 

That price tag isn’t the only financial challenge, adds David Harvey of the IHS. Many of the homes are far apart, so a single water system might serve very few of them. And the fewer homes that a water system reaches, the higher the costs tend to be for customers. “The rates would probably be above the levels that people in these locations could afford to pay,” Harvey explains.

Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo

Darlene Arviso refills a family’s underground water tank.

More Water Challenges 

Throughout the U.S., people who live far from city or county water lines often get their water from wells. But digging for groundwater or relying on aboveground springs and ponds isn’t always a safe option on the Navajo reservation, Robbins says. 

In fact, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has warned that unregulated drinking water sources are the greatest public health risk on the reservation. 

1 in 3

Portion of Navajo families who haul water home every day

SOURCE: Navajo Water Project

The U.S. operated more than 500 uranium mines on the land over four decades. Although the mining stopped in 1986, some of the natural water sources remain contaminated with uranium and arsenic. Both substances can be dangerous—and even deadly—if consumed. And they’re difficult to detect without special equipment. 

But when the nearest regularly tested and treated water source is dozens of miles away—or farther—some people end up taking their chances. 

One Navajo elder, Velma,* lacked water in her home for many years. She and her husband were constantly driving to her sister’s house to get their water for drinking, washing, and cleaning. But one time, when they couldn’t, Velma recalls, they “had no choice but to get water from a pond for animals.” 

*Last name withheld for privacy

Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Amanda Larson heats bottled water for her son’s bath.

Water to the People

The Navajo Water Project is one effort aimed at solving the crisis—a single household at a time. Robbins is the program’s director. Run by the nonprofit DigDeep, the Navajo Water Project brings running water to families who live far from existing water lines and have difficulty transporting their own water. 

Many of the Navajo Water Project’s staff, including Shanna Yazzie, are Navajo and live on the reservation. The group buries a 1,200-gallon refillable water tank in each participating family’s yard, installs a sink in the home, and runs plumbing to connect the two. A pump pushes the water from the tank into the house. A water truck refills the tank monthly. If a family doesn’t have electricity, the Navajo Water Project also installs a solar-powered unit to run the pump. 

Since 2014, the group has provided hot and cold running water indoors to nearly 300 Navajo households, including Velma’s. She remembers crying tears of joy the first time she turned on the water.

Where Water Is Needed

The Navajo Nation is roughly the size of West Virginia. It is made up of 110 chapters, or communities. This map shows each chapter’s level of access to running water.

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

Expanding Water Access

At the same time, the Navajo government, the IHS, and other groups have been working to connect existing water lines to more homes. The goal is to one day provide water access to everyone, so that no one has to haul water, Harvey says. 

The Navajo Tribal Utility Authority recently extended a water line to reach Victoria Badonie’s house. She had lived for years without running water, regularly driving her grandchildren more than a mile so they could shower in water from a groundwater pipe. 

When Badonie found out she was getting running water, she couldn’t believe it. That first night, she and her grandchildren stayed up late reveling in the water. They washed everything they could and showered at home for the first time.

DigDeep

Navajo Water Project workers set up a 1,200-gallon water tank for a family.

The Pandemic’s Effects 

When the pandemic started in early 2020, however, some of the progress was halted. Employees of the Navajo Water Project, for example, could no longer enter homes to install plumbing. And with limited access to regular handwashing, local cases of Covid-19 soared. Last spring, the reservation experienced a higher rate of the disease per person than anywhere else in the United States. 

The Navajo Water Project team switched gears, distributing more than 261,000 gallons of bottled water to help meet immediate needs. Meanwhile, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez appealed directly to the U.S. government for aid. 

“A single spigot on a desolate road, miles from any residence, services 900 people,” he testified before members of Congress last June. Nez helped secure $5 million in federal Covid-19 relief funding to help increase water access. 

With the money, the IHS installed 59 temporary public water access points—more than doubling the reservation’s total. The water at those points is regularly tested and treated for safety.

290

Number of indoor water systems installed by the Navajo Water Project 

SOURCE: Navajo Water Project

The water access points were placed strategically to reduce how far people needed to go to get safe water. Before, the average family traveled about an hour round-trip, Harvey says. Now, it takes 20 to 25 minutes. Shaving down the distance was important, Harvey says. “That’s someone’s time and also expense in gasoline and wear and tear on your vehicle.”

The federal funding is covering up to two years’ worth of water fees, so families can get water for household activities for free at the access points. It is also paying for up to 37,000 five-gallon water storage containers, one for each individual living in a home without running water. In addition, families are receiving free water-disinfection tablets to ensure that the water they get from the public water access points remains safe, even if it sits for a while in containers before being used.

Harvey hopes that the renewed focus on solving the reservation’s water issues will continue long after the pandemic. “This was an opportunity to try to do something immediate to address the problem but also to kind of leave a longstanding relationship to move this forward and address it,” he says.

DigDeep

A boy experiences running water in his home for the first time.

A Precious Resource

Robbins shares those goals. She is eager to get the Navajo Water Project team back into people’s homes to continue installing running water once it is safe to do so. In the meantime, the group has set up hundreds of 275-gallon water tanks with outdoor handwashing stations for families. 

It has also installed smaller versions of its original systems, which can be modified to provide indoor water after the pandemic. Robbins hopes future systems will also include toilets. 

The work is personal for her and her team. “The communities that we work in, I see my family in them,” Robbins says. “A grandma or grandpa or elder should not have to worry about hauling water. We should be taking care of them.”

But, she adds, you don’t need to be local to help make a difference. Just being more mindful that water is a precious resource is an important step, Robbins says. 

Everyone should use and conserve water carefully, agrees Velma, the Navajo elder. “Water in the Navajo way is very sacred,” she explains. “We don’t waste it, we don’t abuse it, and we don’t take it for granted. We cherish it tremendously.”

How Much Water Can You Save?

Conserving water is important, even if you have running water in your home. Using less of it cuts down on the energy needed to process and deliver more, which helps the environment. Here’s how to get started.

Turn off the tap while you brush your teeth.

save 3 gallons a minute

Clean dishes in a dishwasher, not by hand.

save up to 15 gallons

Take a 10-minute shower instead of a bath.

save up to 45 gallons

Opt for a self-service car wash, not a hose at home. 

save about 85 gallons

Help fix a running or leaky toilet. 

save 200 gallons a day 

SOURCE: Water Footprint Calculator

Write About It! Write a letter or an email to one of your U.S. senators or your U.S. representative. (Find them at congress.gov/members.) Include details to explain where water access is a problem, and suggest ways the lawmaker can help the Navajo Nation.

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U.S. News

Improving Water Access for Navajo Families

Watch a video about how DigDeep’s Navajo Water Project is bringing clean running water to the Navajo Nation.

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U.S. News

U.S. Water Crisis Hot Spots

Watch a video about places around the U.S. where people lack access to clean, safe, affordable water.

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