KUER
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.”
Unsplash Utah wildlife officials are reminding people to clean their bird feeders at least once a month. This story and more in Friday evening s news brief.
Friday evening, May 7, 2021
Southern Utah
Water For Tribes Initiative Asking Congress For More Funding
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a clear connection between access to clean water and public health, according to Navajo tribal member Bidtah Becker. She is part of a group called the Water & Tribes Initiative that advocates for water access in Indian Country. It is pushing Congress to pass funding for water infrastructure in Indian Country. Becker’s group hired University of Utah law professor Heather Tanana to compile a report on the issues tribes face when it comes to water. Tanana, who is Navajo, looked at four components: lack of infrastructure, contamination, increasing demand and insufficient maintenance funding. She found every tribe struggles with at least one of the problems. Read the full story.
KUER
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.