Water Hole: No running water on Navajo Nation reservation.
Navajo Nation members have scarce access to running water in Monument Valley, which spans Arizona and Utah.
This one, leading to a one-spigot watering hole a few miles away, is the main water supply for about 900 people living nearby.
It’s about nine miles one way from my house to the nearest water hole.” Leaders of the Navajo Water Project, a non-profit working to bring more running water to Navajo homes in New Mexico and clean water to an Arizona school for youths who are disabled, estimate about 40 percent of Navajo Nation members don’t have access to running water in their homes.
In tiny Oljato, where about 900 people live in this Monument Valley community, traveling to get water is a normal part of life, with some regretting it and others shrugging it off.
“That is the big challenge,” said John, who is not related to Lionel John.
“We have to haul in water just to live off of,” Mark Holiday said.
“That is an issue with the Navajo EPA,” John said.
The challenge to a rural area is that it’s hard to bring qualified people in because it’s not easy living out there in a rural area.
Gregory Holiday, a member of the Navajo Nation, said even if he had access to running water he doesn’t trust that it is safe to drink, saying longterm uranium mining in the area contaminated the water.