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Tribe urges action on water crisis

Monday, August 27, 2007

PHOENIX (AP) -- Leaders of the Navajo Nation are struggling with state and federal officials to secure more water for members of the tribe, many of whom have to haul their own water in a costly and time-consuming process.

Nearly 80,000 people on the country's largest Indian reservation have to haul their own water. That's more than 30 percent. Those who lack running water live far from a water pipeline, and their communities barely have enough water to sustain what few lines exist.

"We live in a situation where we can't even meet our own basic human needs, which is just a drink of water," said Lena Fowler, vice chairman of the Navajo Nation Water Rights Commission. "When we get up in the morning, after we pray, we have to start thinking about how much water we have."

The tribe, located in Arizona, New Mexico and Utah, is working to secure $2 billion from the federal government for pipelines tapping the San Juan and Colorado rivers. But Navajo officials say they have been met with opposition from the Bush administration and other Colorado River states.

Tribal leaders are also preparing for what it anticipates will be a drawn-out process to settle claims with Arizona so it can secure federal funding for delivery projects and years of studies and construction.

Although the reservation sits atop several huge aquifers, not all wells produce usable water. A shallow well can turn brackish without warning. Many dry up in a drought. Windmill-powered pumps break down, often for weeks at a time.

And while three major rivers flank the reservation -- the San Juan on the north, the Colorado on the west and the Little Colorado on the south -- the tribe has never secured rights to divert adequate water nor can it afford to build large-scale delivery systems.

New Mexico has signed a deal that would set aside water for a strip of the reservation along the Arizona border and build a pipeline to it, but money and politics threaten to sink that plan and delay other agreements.

Arizona wants broader regional claims settled before Congress signs off on the New Mexico deal and also wants the tribe to drop a lawsuit that accused the federal government of mismanaging the Colorado.

With resources stretched so thin, the Navajos have adapted into some of the most efficient water users anywhere.

In a home without running water, the average Navajo uses as little as 10 to 15 gallons of water a day. In a home with running water, that number is closer to 80 gallons, and in Phoenix, the average person uses as much as 170 gallons per day.

In 2004, the Bureau of Reclamation estimated that the total economic cost to haul water on the reservation is about $113 per 1,000 gallons, or $37,000 for an acre-foot. A Phoenix homeowner pays about $5 a month for as much as 7,480 gallons.

"We know how to conserve. We know how to get by with less," said Sharon Williams, who lives in western New Mexico and hauls her own water. "People in Phoenix have it made. They have water for grass. They can step in a shower any time. They never have to wonder if they have water.

"If they had to come up here and live like us for a day," she said, "they wouldn't make it."

Information from: The Arizona Republic, http://www.azcentral.com

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