TIME - This Is Life in America’s Water-Inequality Capital. It Might Be About to Change
“Water is Life. People in the cities take it for granted and water their plants and grass, here it’s precious. We think of water as a deity. Water is living.”
The Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project aims to deliver treated water from the San Juan River to 240,000 people via 300 miles of pipes–though its future hangs in the balance. Image from TIME Magazine.
This recent article from TIME Magazine explores the severe water inequality in the Navajo Nation, where over one-third of Diné families must haul water across long distances, paying more for water than most Americans while using the least per capita. Just 80 miles away, residents of Utah’s Washington County—sharing the same water supply—pay far less and consume much more. This disparity showcases the systemic inequities in water access across the American West, exacerbated by a megadrought that has left the region drier than at any point in 1,200 years.
As part of a broader effort to address these inequalities, the federal government is developing the Post-2026 Operational Guidelines, a new water management plan that will include significant tribal input. However, skepticism remains high among Indigenous communities, particularly in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Arizona v. Navajo Nation, which ruled that the federal government has no obligation to provide water to the Navajo people. Meanwhile, the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project—a critical infrastructure initiative designed to bring water to 240,000 people—faces an uncertain future as its completion deadline approaches.
In contrast, Washington County continues to expand its water infrastructure with ambitious projects like the $2 billion Lake Powell Pipeline, reflecting the stark divide in how water resources are allocated between communities. For the Diné, water is life—a precious resource that has long been undervalued and inequitably distributed.
As Alberta navigates the complexities of groundwater sustainability in changing climatic conditions, ongoing initiatives like the Canada1Water project (C1W) provide crucial research and data for informed resource management strategies. By quantifying the effects of climate change on Canada’s water resources, the C1W project represents a critical piece of virtual water resources infrastructure that can help decision-makers and policy analysts ensure the sustainability of Canada’s critical water supply systems.
Click here to read the article at TIME
“We need to figure out how to survive with half the water, two generations down the line.”