The Dirt: Where is the Navajo Water?

One-third of Navajo Nation homes lack plumbing for household drinking water. Instead, they rely on other groundwater sources – both regulated and not – for everything from livestock watering and agriculture to domestic use. For these reasons, access to reliable water quality information is critical.
 
To help solve this problem, researchers at the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, University of New Mexico, University of California, Montana State University, Southwest Research and Information Center, and the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources (NNDWR) developed the Navajo WaterGIS, an online portal that compiles a database of water quality measurements from groundwater wells on the Navajo Nation.
 
According to Dr. Crystal Tulley Cordova, Principal Hydrologist of the NNDWR, the portal is "an accessible and interactive tool available to help Navajo Nation water managers better understand the water quality of unregulated water sources."
 
The portal gives users information about contaminated wells and abandoned uranium mines in the Navajo Nation. Randy Akee, Associate Professor of the Department of Public Policy and Chair of American Indian Studies at the University of California – Los Angeles, observed that the research effort is "an amazing display of Indigenous Data Sovereignty in practice.... Water is a precious resource and making data more readily accessible is a powerful tool for tribal citizens, leaders, and health officials.”
 
Learn more, and explore the Navajo WaterGIS.