HEALTH AND SANITATION
Not only is it difficult to keep qualified workers
around the area, the Navajo nation also lacks
adequate funding to complete most projects.
Water projects on tribal lands that were
authorised by Congress have typically been
underfunded and go into disrepair due to a
lack of technically trained tribal individuals to
maintain these systems.
Compared to other locations in the United
States, the Navajo nation seems to be
rather unnoticed on the government’s
radar. The non-profits in the area such
as Dig Deep have been working in the
Navajo nation since 2013, but founder
George McGraw says there is much
more work to be done and that more
government funding is a necessity. To
help combat this, the National Congress
of American Indians is pushing for a raise
in the Clean Water State Revolving Fund
and the Drinking Water State Revolving
Fund from 1.5% to 3%.
Several locations in the United States lack
access to an adequate amount of clean
water and sanitation, but most, like Flint,
Michigan, receive large amounts of media
coverage accompanied by aid. Media
coverage leads to an increase in public
awareness, which in the end can assist in
passing bills and increasing government
funding to overcome the conflict.
In the Navajo Nation, along with nearly all
Native American reservations, government
funding is set to a minimum. Funding and
media coverage in the Navajo nation are
low compared to cities like Flint. President
of the Navajo nation, Russell Begaye spoke
with USNEWS about the nation’s lack of
funding compared to Flint. “It indicates
to us that we are not a priority. Maybe
it is because we don’t have the voting
influence that Michigan has. Whatever the
factor is, we definitely have been ignored.”
In January 2016, President Obama
declared a state of emergency in Flint,
Michigan, increasing funding and passing
a bill along with a USD100-million grant
from the EPA. The funding, provided by the
Water Infrastructure Improvements for the
Nation (WIIN) Act of 2016, enables Flint to
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
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accelerate and expand its work to replace
lead service lines and make other critical
infrastructure improvements.
Another reason that IWSH’s Community
Plumbing Challenge should be held in the
Navajo nation is because of the threat
of devastating health issues that often
shadow the absence of clean water. In
the Navajo nation, where there’s normally
only a single drinking hole for miles,
residents are entirely dependent on that
single source for agriculture, livestock
and themselves. However, many of these
sources have been tainted by nearby
uranium mines that were improperly
sealed, resulting in run-off contaminating
local drinking sources.
Despite warnings from the EPA, some
Navajo continue to use the contaminated
wells because it’s their only water source.
This has led to the effects of radiation
over-exposure to become evident within
the population through a sickness known
as Navajo neuropathy, which causes birth
defects, muscle weakness and even death
in some. The slimming of possible drinking
sources on the reservation has pushed
many Navajo to use unregulated drinking
sources. These are sources that are not
checked by the EPA and may contain
bacteria from foecal matter, posing a huge
threat to public health.
Selecting an area within the United States
to help may be difficult simply because
many locations deserve improvements
in plumbing and sanitation. However,
the people of the Navajo Nation stand
apart from the rest via their under-
representation and marginalisation. IWSH’s
2018 Community Plumbing Challenge
should focus on an area where about 30%
of the population lacks access to clean
water within their homes, where two-fifths
of the population is below the poverty
line, where unregulated drinking sources
threaten the population, where funding for
improved infrastructure seems obsolete,
and where the poor living conditions
receive little to no media coverage. The
2018 Community Plumbing Challenge
should focus on the Navajo nation. PA
June 2019 Volume 25 I Number 4