Navajo Water Project

The Navajo Nation covers 27,413 rural square miles across Northern Arizona, Northwest New Mexico, and Southern Utah. It is home to 173,667 out of 332,129 Navajo tribal members. 30% of the households here do not have running water or basic plumbing.

Daily life without easy access to water looks a lot different. To collect water, these families have to load up their car or truck with any and all available water containers and drive many miles to a central water station to fill up these containers. Once home they then have to make choices and carefully ration water for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing.

Our implementing partner, Dig Deep, runs a community-managed utility alternative, with a host of off-grid and centralized solutions including:

• Home Water Systems with a 1200-gallon cistern buried underground, a water pump, pressure tank water heater, water filter, a deep-basin sink, and a drain field. The water is then delivered to them, refilling the tank monthly. Dig Deep’s goal is to install 155 of these new systems in 2024.

• Piped Water Connections for families close enough to main water lines, Dig Deep will extend service lines to these homes, with a goal of assisting 100 households this year.

• Wastewater Solutions for households without working septic, Dig Deep will serve approximately 200 families through septic installations, repair and cleanings this year.

With your help, let’s support this important work.