FARMINGTON When the coronavirus pandemic forced a majority of residents on the Navajo Nation to rely on the internet for work and school, it revealed the digital gap.
COVID-19 called attention to deficiencies in infrastructure and in high-speed internet service within the Navajo Nation, tribal President Jonathan Nez said during a roundtable discussion on May 6 with federal and state officials.
The Navajo Nation is 27,000 square miles, roughly equal to the size of West Virginia, and its vastness and terrain are among the obstacles to expansion of broadband access, Nez explained to the panel. The lack of electrical infrastructure, the existence of many dark zones with no cellular service, the lack of fiber and few broadband service providers all lead to limited and expensive broadband services for our households, schools, businesses, government offices and health care facilities, he said.
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Kevin Blackhorse lives on the Navajo Nation, just outside of Bluff. He said he comes into town twice a week to fill up his 270 gallon water tank at the gas station.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a clear connection between access to clean water and public health, according to Navajo tribal member Bidtah Becker.
Becker is part of a group called the Water & Tribes Initiative that advocates for water access in Indian Country. She said the pandemic has made it easier to ask Congress for money to solve the problem.
“The conversation has shifted from, ‘Oh no, you could never get that amount of money.’ And there’s always a little subtext of, ‘Are you really deserving of that money?’” she said. “Now it’s like, ‘Yes. Everybody needs clean drinking water. No questions asked.”
How the pandemic exposed the water issues for southwestern tribes
Lack of potable water drove high Covid-19 rates in Native American communities, which helped get better representation in upcoming negotiations about Colorado River water.
Nancy Bitsue, an elderly member of the Navajo Nation, receives her monthly water delivery in the town of Thoreau on June 6, 2019 in Thoreau, New Mexico. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
By Judy Fahys | Inside Climate News
| April 30, 2021, 8:14 p.m. | Updated: 9:42 p.m.
While the world watched in horror as refrigerator trailers collected the bodies of Covid-19 victims in New York City, the suffering of Native American people was almost invisible.
The Pandemic Exposed the Severe Water Insecurity Faced by Southwestern Tribes
Lack of potable water drove high Covid-19 rates in Native American communities. That realization may help them gain better representation in upcoming negotiations about Colorado River water.
April 29, 2021
Nancy Bitsue, an elderly member of the Navajo Nation, receives her monthly water delivery in the town of Thoreau on June 6, 2019 in Thoreau, New Mexico. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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While the world watched in horror as refrigerator trailers collected the bodies of Covid-19 victims in New York City, the suffering of Native American people was almost invisible.