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. (Photo by Ethan Millman/Cronkite News)

On the outskirts of Monument Valley, touching the Arizona-Utah border, a water well is encased in a brick building behind a barb-wired fence. A few cattle graze nearby, mooing to occasionally pierce the quiet. Residents say the well is one of two in the area, a couple miles from a small town on the Navajo Reservation.

One well is a direct line to hotels. This one, leading to a one-spigot watering hole a few miles away, is the main water supply for about 900 people living nearby.

Lack of running water

The first residents of the day [arrive] with big plastic bottles and buckets lining truck beds and packed into car trunks as they drive along miles of rock-strewn, dirt roads…

Verna Yazzie, who runs an Airbnb in Monument Valley, takes an 18-mile round trip when she needs water. She goes to the watering hole a few times a week and said she has to go off-roading for six miles to get to the nearest water source. […]

Full article: Water Hole: No running water on Navajo Nation reservation

More about Utah and tribal water supplies:

• Navajo Water Supply is More Horrific than Flint, But No One Cares Because they’re Native American
• Utah copes with drying streams, dying animals as drought tightens its grip
• Drought Forces Hard Choices for Farmers and Ranchers in the Southwest
• Officials dismissed benefits of national monuments
• United States: Water deficits to diminish in the SW, surpluses ahead for FL
• Stanford study: changing scope of Native American groundwater rights

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