Restóre: Restoring vital water resources on the Navajo Nation

Water and energy are interdependent—energy supply depends on water and water supply depends on energy. This relationship intensifies when water is scarce and energy demand is on the rise, which is why water is often at the forefront of the dialogue on energy transition in the Intermountain West. Still, for some communities, the topic of water takes on a deeper meaning. This seminar will highlight the urgent need for access to clean and safe water resources on the Navajo Nation—the largest Native American tribe in the U.S., with a land base of 27,000 square miles that extends into the states of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. Today, approximately 30 percent of Navajo residents do not have access to clean running water.      

Solutions to water infrastructure that can address this gap are complicated in the arid Southwest where groundwater quality is poor due to high salinity, microbial contaminants, or metal contaminants. Tune in to this seminar to learn how a team of students and faculty from Navajo Technical University and New Mexico Tech are addressing these challenges through the Navajo Nation Water Purification Project (N⁴WPP). The project endeavors to install water filtration units on the Navajo Nation and use the installation sites to train students on how to test water quality and maintain the units to provide sustainable long-term water resources suitable for agriculture and livestock, cleaning, and eventually clean drinking water.