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CGTN America releases: "Navajo Nation: Life without Running Water".
On the Navajo Nation reservation nowadays, you rarely see any traffic. If you do see a car, it is sometimes accompanied by a large water tank.
According to the Navajo Nation Government, about 30% to 40% of the population, living on lands roughly the size of West Virginia, has no running water. Except for towns or large 'chapters,' the equivalent of counties, the further you go into the desert, the fewer people you will find with running water.
Some dig wells and use a windmill to draw water, but most get their water by driving to the nearest water station like the one in the small town of Goulding, Utah.
Sterling Johns told us that he traveled to Goulding every two days to fill his water tank. In summer, his family consumes large amounts of water, so he sometimes fetches water daily.
Goulding is one the few places to get free water in the Monument Valley area. Our reporter, Xu Dezhi, saw "cars cued up for hours to get water."
The faucet is rather small so it takes about 30 minutes to fill up a 2,000-liter tank. Driving to Goulding, waiting to fill up a large tank, and the return trip can take an entire day.
After buying gas for the commute to their water supplies, plus the time they spend driving there, the free water sometimes winds up costing as much as water sold commercially.
The factors creating this situation go beyond logistics. Vast tracts of arid desert, the lack of infrastructure, systematic discrimination, long-running disputes over water rights, and lack of money, have all made it harder to solve the problem.
Even if Johns could afford to a drill wells (around $10,000), Johns and other Navajo remain concerned about whether their water is safe. They uranium mining may have contaminated the groundwater.
Click here for more about all "Navajo Nation: Life without Running Water" and to view the report: https://newsus.cgtn.com/news/2021-05-29/Navajo-Nation-Life-without-running-water-10DZ0uIT4Xu/index.html
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Xu Dezhi, Medialinks TV, LLC, +1 202-393-1850, [email protected]
SOURCE CGTN America
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